The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that investments in the new city of Neom, is likely to reach 500 billion dollars. Following this, major investors withdrew from the project due to the bad reputation bin Salman enjoys abroad.
Bin Salman started the NEOM project despite deteriorating economy of his kingdom, due to a number of crisis including the dropping prices of petrol, the spread of the Corona virus and closing Hajj and Umrah, as well as the payment of hundreds of billions of dollars to US president Donald Trump who was blackmailing Saudi Arabia.
Bin Salman violated the right of Saudi citizens who lived in the Neom region for hundreds of years, as he displaced some of them, and arrested everyone who refused to comply with his order to force them to leave their homes so he could build his dream project.
These violations were met with international criticism, as bin Salman did not seek to compensate Neom citizens for the value of the land and their history they were leaving behind, while wasting millions of dollars to promote his project outside Saudi Arabia, and hundreds of millions to improve his image and reputation abroad.
The US Foreign Lobby website revealed that Mohamed Bin Salman has contracted with Ruder Finn Company -one of the largest private telecommunications companies in the world- with a value of $1,700,000. The role of the company is to enhance the social responsibility of the city, develop Neom’s website, and develop a marketing strategy on social media platforms to promote the city of NEOM as the city of the future. The company will work to influence the American public opinion and government officials in the US to support the project of the Crown Prince.
Why would bin Salman replace the original inhabitants of Neom with foreign residents? Why doesn’t he adequately compensate those who want to displace from their land and history instead of wasting hundreds of millions in order to promote the delusional city abroad?
The Shock Al-Huwaitat tribe
The displacement of Al-Huwaitat tribe was not as easy step for them as they never expected this from the government of their country, since they have lived in that region for many centuries. The former director of Human Rights Watch Sarah Leah Whitson, stated that: “instead of coming to terms with Al-Huwaitat and the local community in the area of Neom, Saudi authorities dealt with them as it deals with the things it wants to get rid of for tomorrow, so it got rid of residents of the region to replace it with new residents. The government, unfortunately, wants the land and does not want the people to establish a global city on Saudi lands, but without Saudis”.
The Saudi legal researcher Abdullah al-Odah said: What is happening with the people of Neom only proves that the crown prince will crush whoever reject his orders, by killing, imprisonment or deportation.
READ: NEOM: Jews’ Dream of a new Middle East
