Saudi Arabia has detained two more members of the Huwaitat tribe as part of its campaign of intimidation and harassment of the tribe to clear the way for the construction of Neom, according to the Huwaitat spokesperson.
The detentions occurred on Thursday, 1 October, and included the arrest of one Huwaitat member while at university, spokesperson Alya Alhwaiti told the Independent.
“When they started Neom in the beginning of 2016, Mohammed bin Salman promised them to be part of it and share in the development and improvement of the area,” said Alhwaiti. “But in 2020, they are forced to leave their land without places to stay. And the minute you open your mouth or say something on social media, you disappear from the face of the earth.”
Alhwaiti, who is now based in London, said she has received death threats for advocating for the tribe, as well as threats to gouge her eyes and douse her in acid. She became known as a prominent threat to the regime after revealing the killing of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti by Saudi security forces.
Huwaiti, a member of the Huwaitat community, had objected to Saudi demands that his community should relocate so the Neom megaproject could be built on the land owned by them for generations.
“The crown prince is forcing people to move, and terrifying and scaring them to move,” Alhwaiti told the Independent, also noting that the original tactic of paying tribespeople off to displace them had made way for pure intimidation. She noted that families had been offered just $3,000 to leave their ancestral homeland.
Saudi Arabia has touted the $500bn Neom megacity project as being a modern utopia, featuring everything from an artificial moon to robot servants – for those who can afford it.
But in order to be built, Neom needs tens of thousands of members of the Huwaitat community to leave their land. Saudi Arabia is infamous for its lack of human rights and brutality towards all those who speak out against the rule of de facto ruler crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
No matter how it tries to whitewash its crimes, with promises of a modern megacity, it quickly resorts to this brutality whenever someone stands in its way.
