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The kingdom continues to do business as usual, an investment forum, concerts and even fashion shows. But pain, concern and outrage over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza simmer just below the surface.
By Vivian Nereim, Kate Kelly and Ahmed Al Omran
Information from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
As the curtain rose this week at an annual investment forum hosted by the Saudi crown prince, dancers in silver jumpsuits rippled through the crowd and a teenager in a sequined suit sang an opera solo as the symbol of a white dove, a symbol of peace, flew over the screens surrounding the darkroom.
For bankers, executives and foreign officials gathered in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to strike deals, the war raging in Gaza and Israel is a remote backdrop. Instead, when speakers took the stage, they praised Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to remake Saudi Arabia and point to the future: synthetic intelligence, longevity science, renewable energy.
“I appreciate that many of you have embarked on a long adventure to gather here, especially in the difficult times we are experiencing in other parts of the world,” Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of the kingdom’s $700 billion sovereign wealth fund, said in a single, indirect speech. He referred to the conflict in his keynote address at the Future Investment Initiative convention on Tuesday. Although today’s global situation is uncertain, we continue with our project to inspire. “
Since gunmen from the Palestinian armed organization Hamas launched a surprising attack against Israel in Gaza on October 7, the risk of an escalation of war has loomed over the Middle East. Israel laid siege to the Gaza Strip and unleashed intense bombardments.
This sparked protests across the region, reinvigorating Arabs for the Palestinian cause, joining many Saudi citizens.
Still, Saudi officials have made it clear they are determined to prevent all of this from overshadowing Prince Mohammed’s plans for the kingdom, which include reforming the economy to reduce dependence on oil and transforming the country into a global hub for business and tourism.
These plans aim to reduce tensions in the region, not escalate them, and to that end, Saudi Arabia has recently re-established ties with its regional rival, Iran, which backs Hamas and several other militias in the Middle East. Saudi officials are struggling to get involved in the fallout from the conflict, which they fear could destabilize the entire region.
“Before October 7, there was a lot of de-escalation, which brought a lot of hope for the region, and we don’t need recent occasions to derail that,” Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said at the three-day conference, which ended on Thursday.
Five years ago, Prince Mohammed sat in the same gilded convention hall where this year’s forum was held and declared that the Middle East would be the “new Europe” of the world. Since then, he has made the conservative Islamic kingdom almost unrecognizable, ending many social restrictions and pushing a sweeping economic plan, while expanding political repression and suppressing dissent.
Since the beginning of the war, life in the kingdom has been split-screen. On the one hand, many Saudis are horrified and glued to their social media, watching videos of parents crying and children who have died covered in dust as a result. of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
On the other hand, the whirlwind of festivals, announcements and occasions that marked Prince Mohammed’s reign has advanced at breakneck speed.
Last weekend, models with bare shoulders and slicked-back hair walked the runway at the first Riyadh Fashion Week. And between visits from foreign officials eager to talk about the war, Prince Mohammed juggled his maniacal agenda.
On Monday, on an occasion attended by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, Prince Mohammed announced that the kingdom would create a new “Esports World Cup. “
The Saudi government has been a supporter of the Palestinians and, like many Arab states, has long refused to recognize Israel over the status quo of a Palestinian state. But in 2020, Bahrain and the neighboring United Arab Emirates established ties with Israel under known agreements. jointly as the Abraham Accords, negotiated through the Trump administration.
Under Prince Mohammed, the country’s de facto ruler, the Saudi position changed. He refocused official discourse around Saudi patriotism first, leaving aside the Islamic and pan-Arab sentiments that had long governed his country’s national identity.
In recent years, former Saudi officials and pro-government influencers on social media have unabashedly criticized the Palestinians for squandering opportunities for conflict, pointing out that “Palestine is not my cause” in strident posts.
“The ongoing war in Gaza poses, first of all, a real challenge to this Saudi policy,” said Sultan Alamer, a Saudi postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies. The Palestinians may simply not diminish the strong sense of solidarity among Saudis for what was happening there. “
In the months leading up to the outbreak of the war, Prince Mohammed and his advisers had held talks with Biden administration officials about a complex deal to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange, in part, for a security pact with the United States and concessions. from Israel to the Palestinians. However, in an interview last month, the crown prince gave the impression that such concessions might not be enough to create a Palestinian state.
“We hope that this will improve the lives of Palestinians and make Israel an actor in the Middle East,” he told Fox News, adding, “Every day we get closer” to a deal.
Since then, the war has created fundamental obstacles to achieving such an agreement.
On the one hand, Saudi officials have renewed their calls for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. And Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said this week that it is imperative to announce not only a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but also to return to a peace procedure between Israelis and Palestinians, arguing that a solution to the conflict is necessary. This is essential for regional security.
In almost every country neighboring Saudi Arabia, protesters took to the streets to oppose Israel’s siege of Gaza, and governments and businesses canceled concerts and other occasions in solidarity with Palestinians.
In Bahrain, a series of protests called on the government to end its ties with Israel. In Qatar’s capital, Doha, where some Hamas political leaders are based, men and women wore scarves in the colors of the Palestinian flag when shopping for food and at sporting events.
In the United Arab Emirates, organizers canceled several times or asked that their proceeds be donated to an Emirati crusade for Gaza.
But such public demonstrations are conspicuously absent in Saudi Arabia — where any form of protest is necessarily illegal — even as Palestinian pain, concern and outrage simmer just below the surface, the Saudis said in interviews.
Publicly, Saudi officials have denounced the thousands of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, calling for an end to the siege and a swift ceasefire, as well as the delivery of aid to the Palestinians. But some Saudis say they have picked up on signs that the Palestinian sentiment presentations are entirely welcome through their government.
Last week, Saudi Arabia’s al-Hilal soccer team shared a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that featured one of its players dressed in a Palestinian kaffiyeh around his neck. The post garnered an avalanche of positive responses, until it was suddenly deleted.
Saudi sports journalists who had temporarily republished it issued a series of apologies for mixing politics and sports, and pro-government accounts attacked them, accusing them of naively allowing themselves to be captivated by emotional appeals to Palestinians through extremist teams in the kingdom.
For many Saudis, the uncertainty over the state’s shifting red lines has brought their expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians into the personal sphere, adding social media accounts closed to everyone except their friends.
When Saudis gather in their homes, Gaza is the topic of the moment, said Abdulhamid, a Saudi who asked to be known through his mid-call for fear of government reprisals.
“People don’t need to say anything because it would cause them even more problems,” he said.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Turki al-Asheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s entertainment authority, defended proceeding with holding events as usual, arguing that life happens even in wars.
“All Saudis, me, are busy moving up in your country,” he said.
Vivian Nereim is the head of the Gulf Bureau. She has more than a decade of experience in the Arabian Peninsula and was previously a Bloomberg News reporter covering Saudi Arabia. Find out more about Vivian Néréim
Kate Kelly covers money, influence and politics as a correspondent for the Times’ Washington bureau. Prior to that, he spent twenty years covering Wall Street deals, key players, and their intersection with politics. She is the author of 3 books, and adds “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh. ” Learn more about Kate Kelly
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