Local citizens have been converted into “strangers” in their own homeland of Jeddah as a result of widespread home demolitions and displacements, all as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s next ambitious project in the vital Red Sea port city.
Residents claim that Saudi authorities are razing bustling working-class neighbourhoods that formerly positioned the kingdom’s second-largest city, located 845 kilometres (525 miles) south of the capital Riyadh, as the most liberal destination in the very conservative country.
“In our own city, we’ve become strangers.” We feel suffering and bitterness,” a Saudi doctor told AFP, declining to be identified for fear of reprisal by the authorities.
The doctor, who still had 15 years left on a loan he took out to build his family’s “dream” home in Jeddah, which was bulldozed to the ground, noted that his chances of renegotiating the debt or seeking compensation were slim.
Following the end of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, demolitions are likely to resume in May.
The operation is widely expected to stoke anti-regime sentiment in the 30-plus neighbourhoods targeted, many of which housed a mix of Saudi citizens and expats from various Arab and East Asian countries.
Evicted individuals had been living in their homes for up to 60 years, according to the London-based rights group ALQST, an independent non-governmental organisation campaigning for human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Some were evicted when their power and water were turned off, and others were threatened with jail for violating an eviction order, according to the report.
Security forces took cell phones to prevent footage from getting out, according to a resident of Jeddah’s southern district of Galil, which saw the initial demolitions last October.
“We were evicted from our homes overnight and without warning,” the man, who only gave his first name, Fahd, added.
Online efforts to broadcast details of the demolitions have been led by Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi activist and academic at the Institute for Persian Gulf Affairs in Washington.
“It is not acceptable to demolish citizens’ homes without their consent and without compensating them at a reasonable price to relocate them,” he stated.
Saudi officials have stated that the kingdom will compensate families for their losses, and the government promised in February that 5,000 replacement housing units would be completed by the end of the year.
Residents, including those who were evicted early on, said they had gotten no compensation so far and that there was no clear method to determine the value of their demolished homes.
“Months have gone by and I still haven’t received compensation for my house. “I went from being a homeowner to becoming a tenant who couldn’t afford to pay his rent,” Fahd explained.
