Away from the dreamy slogans drawn by the propaganda materials published on the official website of the "NEOM" project - which the Saudi authorities want to establish in the far northwest of the country - the vast investment project hides the story of threats, forced evictions and blood spills.
The "NEOM" project is a brainchild of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and includes the establishment of a new city for the future on the Red Sea coast along the borders with Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula. The project area is equivalent to the total area of Belgium, and its cost amounts to half a trillion dollars.
The project includes the construction of a huge satellite, glowing beaches in the dark, taxi in the form of a drone, automatic servicing of houses, and more.
Refused to relay
In exchange for these dreamy plans, it took place on the ground that members of the Al-Huwaytat tribe - whose lands fall within the boundaries of the NEOM project - objected to the authorities ’plan to deport them from the lands of their ancestors, rejecting the authorities' promised them of alternative housing and financial compensation.
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Alia Abu Tayeh Al-Huwaiti - a member of the tribe and a political activist based in London - says that the tribe sees in Neum a project that will be built on its blood and bones.
Alia said in an interview with the British newspaper Gadrian that the project will certainly not be for the benefit of members of the tribe who live there, but rather for tourists and the wealthy.
The killing of Abd al-Rahim al-Hwaiti on April 13, when the security forces shot him after he refused to deport his home, was a milestone on the tension between the al-Hwaitat tribe and the Riyadh authorities and their plans to establish the NEOM project.
The dead man is a symbol,
and one of the residents of the town of Khuraybat says that Abd al-Rahim has become a symbol of the tribe's refusal to forcibly deportation. I started counting the homes of the tribe members in preparation for their deportation.
On the same day, the security forces presented and liquidated Abd al-Rahim's house after an exchange of fire, and the security services issued a statement in which they held the dead person responsible for shooting at the security personnel.
Saudi activist Alia believes that the authorities behind the assassination of Abdul Rahim sent a warning message to everyone who objects to the NEOM project that he will meet the same fate.
Alia says that she received death threats after she posted tweets denouncing the crime, and the British authorities have notified these threats.
Alia Al-Hweiti: |
The Al-Qust Association for Human Rights - a Saudi organization - says that after the killing of Abdul Rahim, the Riyadh authorities deliberately covered up the crime and appeased the tribe, by pushing prominent figures in Al-Huwaytat to publicly disavow the dead, and renew loyalty to King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
On the other hand, a member of the advisory committee for the Nayoum Ali Al-Shihabi project told the Ghadrian newspaper that the members of the al-Huwaytat tribe who are leaving will be compensated in a rewarding manner, as is customary in the Kingdom.
Human rights violations
But what happened with the Al-Huwaytat tribe is seen by a member of the European Saudi Human Rights Organization James Suzano as expected. In light of a huge project that requires the expropriation of vast lands as is the case with the NEOM project, there must be a forced displacement of the indigenous population.
Suzano adds that the Saudi authorities had previously undertaken a similar project in the past, which was marred by human rights violations, in reference to the demolition of the authorities in 2017 in the historic Al-Masoura neighborhood in the city of Al-Awamiya in the east of the Kingdom, and the United Nations condemned the forced demolition and the accompanying violation of human rights .
For Al-Qust Association member Josh Cooper, the NEOM project is a project that is less brilliant than what the future will be, but rather a bleak symbol of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, and is embodied in the way the authorities deal with the Al-Huwaitat tribe.