The United States has been on the wrong of human rights for a very long time. Back in 1791, after Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s French troops, the United States sided with France as it “settled” for that new impoverished nation’s obligation to pay reparations to Bonaparte for lost “property.” Thank you Thomas Jefferson, although “desperate for cash” Bonaparte, with no slaves to work his holdings in the Northern Hemisphere, gleefully sold the Louisiana territory to the US. The half a billion dollars of Haitian payments to France over the years only ended in 1947 (when reparations we imposed on Haiti also ended).
In more recent years, we backed the infamous brutal regimes in Iran (under the Pahlavi regime), the secret-police dominated Chilean “good for us anti-communist” Pinochet regime and were actively involved in drug smuggling into the US via the infamous Iran Contra scandal during the Reagan presidency. We were infamous for supporting any manner of brutal and corrupt dictators as long as they were “anti-communist.”
Realpolitik – acting pragmatically to further your own interests with a willingness to look away from the ugly side – has made us convenient allies with unsavory governments long after communism faded from obsession following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Corrupt and/or cruel autocrats have caused us to look the other way with much greater frequency than one would expect from a democracy that touts “human rights.” The tumultuous but oil-rich Middle East has been a particularly relevant allure for our policymakers.
During the Trump presidency, on October 2, 2018, Saudi dissident journalist and US resident, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi hitmen. His body was dismembered and disposed of in some way that was never publicly revealed. Trump’s intelligence agencies confirmed that the killing was most probably authorized by Saudi Crown Prince (and de facto head of state), Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Trump was lambasted for continuing to work with MBS, the same man who handed $2 billion to an inexperienced Trump son-in-law after Trump lost the 2016 election… Jared Kushner’s new investment fund.
But don’t just hold your nose at Trump’s willing acceptance of continued good relations with MBS and Saudi Arabia. With a dearth of American Middle Eastern allies remaining after our Iraq and Afghanistan failures, President Joe Biden continued to accept normalized relations with the Saudis and simply ignored that infamous murder. Saudi Arabia was essential to contain regional Russian and Iranian aspirations and to help find a path to regional peace with Israel (we can see how that worked out).
Even as Saudi women are now allowed to drive, even travel, without familial male escorts, don’t mistake those “liberal” steps with a reduction in expedient cruelty in the Saudi Kingdom. Saudi Arabia has a mission: to find a path out of a total dependence on oil revenue in a world where fossil fuels are facing rising animosity from greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting climate change.
Saudis are used to oil money spread around, foreigners brought in to provide professional management and tons of cheap, mostly Asian workers, willing to tolerate miserable heat and abusive bosses to build gleaming buildings and modern infrastructure. But for what? Aside from oil extraction, what would be the relevant Saudi skillset to modernize the Desert Kingdom? Even as Saudi policymakers greenwash international sports and search for a positive PR path, what exactly is the Saudi economic business plan to evolve local industry and business?
Enter: “Neom, Saudi Arabia's $500bn (£399bn) eco-region, is part of its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil… Its flagship project, The Line, has been pitched as a car-free city, just 200m (656ft) wide and 170km (106 miles) long - though only 2.4km of the project is reportedly expected to be completed by 2030... Dozens of global companies, several of them British, are involved in Neom's construction… The area where Neom is being built has been described as the perfect ‘blank canvas’ by Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.” Merlyn Thomas & Lara El Gibaly, writing for the May 9th BBC.com.
Hey, that sounds like a good idea, a good use for an otherwise empty and unproductive desert, right? Except this land is not empty; a whole of people live there… but they would have to move to make way for this eco-city. Maybe eminent domain can compensate these desert dwellers from their traditional villages and homes, maybe even make them rich. Saudi Arabia certainly has the funds to do that. But remember, this is brutal autocratic monarchy; there are other ways to clear people from lands that the government wants for other uses.
“Saudi authorities have permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for a futuristic desert city being built by dozens of Western companies, an ex-intelligence officer has told the BBC… Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project… One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against eviction… The Saudi government and Neom management refused to comment… [To date] more than 6,000 people have been moved for the project according to his government - and UK-based human rights group ALQST estimates the figure to be higher.
“The BBC has analysed satellite images of three of the villages demolished - al-Khuraybah, Sharma and Gayal. Homes, schools, and hospitals have been wiped off the map… Col Alenezi, who went into exile in the UK last year, says the clearance order he was asked to enact was for al-Khuraybah, 4.5km south of The Line. The villages were mostly populated by the Huwaitat tribe, who have inhabited the Tabuk region in the country's north-west for generations… He said the April 2020 order stated the Huwaitat was made up of ‘many rebels’ and ‘whoever continues to resist [eviction] should be killed, so it licensed the use of lethal force against whoever stayed in their home’… He dodged the mission on invented medical grounds, he told the BBC, but it nevertheless went ahead.
“Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti refused to allow a land registry committee to value his property, and was shot dead by Saudi authorities a day later, during the clearance mission. He had previously posted multiple videos on social media protesting against the evictions… A statement issued by Saudi state security at the time alleged al-Huwaiti had opened fire on security forces and they had been forced to retaliate. Human rights organisations and the UN have said he was killed simply for resisting eviction.” Thomas & El Gibaly. It’s always someone else’s fault. Ah, you wonder why China accuses us of hypocrisy when we decry their obvious human rights abuses. They don’t even point to our support of brutal autocrats (perhaps because their president is one), just our internal struggles with race relations, ethnic and religious discrimination, etc., etc.
I’m Peter Dekom, and our attempting to take credit for standing on a moral high ground is well… hypocrisy… but what exactly do we really stand for these days?
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