Residents Resist Saudi Arabia’s Megacity Plan
BY JARED MALSIN AND SUMMER SAID
Saudi Arabia’s government is facing rare resistance to one of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s signature projects, as members of a tribe in the kingdom’s northwest say they won’t leave their homes to make way for a new megacity, according to residents there and rights activists.
Plans for the futuristic urban development, Neom, were unveiled by Prince Mohammed in 2017 as part of an ambitious effort to reshape Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy. It is expected to cover an area nearly the size of Belgium along the Red Sea coast. The site set aside for Neom is home to about 20,000 people, mostly members of the Huwaitat tribe. Residents and rights activists say police have arrested locals who wouldn’t sign relocation documents and detained others for protesting the loss of what they consider ancestral lands.
Officials have promised compensation and resettlement assistance for displaced residents, many of whom work in government jobs or in small shops and hotels. But locals complain they haven’t been given details. Officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington and at the Neom project declined to say how people would be compensated. Tensions mounted last week after security forces shot and killed a man who had mounted an online campaign critical of the government and vowed in online videos to resist eviction from his home in the town of al-Khuraybah.
“This is my home and I will protect it,” the man, who identified himself as Abdulrahim Ahmad Mahmoud al-Huwaiti, said in one message. “I would not be surprised if they come and kill me now.” The kingdom’s State Security agency said Mr. al-Huwaiti was killed in an exchange of gunfire.
Many members of the Huwaitat tribe are armed, and some have suggested on social media that they could sabotage government infrastructure as a means of fighting back against relocation. Other voices have aligned with the state. A statement attributed to tribal leader Sheikh Alyan Ayed al-Zumhri was published in a Saudi newspaper saying the tribe is loyal to the House of Saud and supports Neom.
Neom is a high priority as part of Prince Mohammed’s economic-development program, despite strains on the government budget from low oil prices, according to a person familiar with government thinking on the project.
Part of a wider effort by the crown prince to modernize Saudi Arabia and make the kingdom more open, Neom is meant to attract an international population. It is one of three such developments along the Red Sea that would displace conservative local communities.
Plans for Neom include a legal system that is distinct from the rest of Saudi Arabia and is expected to mirror the neighboring city-state of Dubai, where less-restrictive practices such as consumption of alcohol, which is forbidden by Islam, are permitted.
Neom’s media office said the project remains on schedule to open to its first residents in 2023. The friction over Neom raises the possibility of an escalating clash between the government and members of a large tribe—something that could complicate efforts to attract international investment in the project.
The crown prince has taken a hard line against dissent in the past, overseeing the arrests of political activists and dissident royals. Men working for the prince murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The crown prince has denied involvement in the killing.
An abandoned boat on the Red Sea coastline that Saudi Arabia wants to develop into a futuristic city called Neom. RORY JONES/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Some residents said unhappiness with terms of the relocations was widespread, even if people weren’t opposed to the development in principle.
“The reality is the following: It is true we don’t object to Neom. This entire area has been neglected for a long time and we need services, but we don’t want to leave our homes either,” a tribe member said. —Rory Jones contributed to this article.
