Owen Jones slams a top museum for hosting ‘one of the most extreme regimes on Earth’

Owen Jones has slammed the Natural History Museum (NHM) because, on 11 October, it’s hosting an event for “one of the most extreme regimes on Earth”. The Saudi Arabian embassy has booked the museum for a reception to “celebrate Saudi Arabia Day”. But the event has caused outrage from many who oppose the brutal dictatorship.

Saudi dictatorship

Jones sent out a series of tweets highlighting the event:

It's been leaked to me that the Natural History Museum is hosting a reception for the Saudi Embassy tonight, 7-9pm.

The Saudi dictatorship is massacring thousands in Yemen and is currently accused of kidnapping and murdering a journalist.@NHM_London must cancel and apologise. pic.twitter.com/1ogRDyHTEE

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) October 11, 2018

The Museum has confirmed to me they are hosting a reception for one of the most gruesome dictatorships on earth, which chops people's heads off for being gay and exports international extremism.

Please tweet @NHM_London demanding they cancel the Saudi event immediately. https://t.co/oUDRxdXKcF

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) October 11, 2018

In response to demands that the NHM cancel, it claimed the event was “an important source of external funding”:

Due to the high volume of mentions we're not able to respond to everyone individually about the Saudi embassy event at the Museum. Please read the Museum's statement in response to your questions. pic.twitter.com/GXmVPib1Nl

— Natural History Museum (@NHM_London) October 11, 2018

Jones isn’t alone, because many others also condemned this event. In a press release seen by The Canary, Andrew Smith from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said:

The Natural History Museum is a very prestigious venue, and should not be hosting a regime which has been accused of killing journalists and is inflicting a humanitarian catastrophe on the people of Yemen. 

The Saudi authorities have a contempt for human rights, and events like this will undoubtedly be regarded as an endorsement. It’s time for the Museum to take a stand.

And as Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights & Democracy (BIRD), explained:

Hosting the Saudi embassy so soon after the alleged murder of a dissident journalist will taint the museum’s reputation. Conducting business as usual with the Saudi regime normalises its crimes and emboldens it to continue its policy of repression and abuse.

Jamal Khashoggi

Smith and Alwadaei are referring to Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who recently vanished. There are widespread fears that he was murdered inside the Istanbul Saudi Arabian consulate. But as many commentators have noted, he’s not the first journalist to vanish; and sadly, he’s unlikely to be the last.

Because Khashoggi worked with the Washington Post, however, his absence is more ‘visible’:

It bears repeating, while it is good that many are horrified at what appears to by the killing of kidnapping of a critical Saudi journalist that is because Khashoggi had the privilege of western connections. Most jailed or killed for dissent don't have that luxury. This isn't new

— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) October 10, 2018

https://twitter.com/TahaMArvas/status/1049888810966896640

As Middle East Eye reported, Saudi Arabia is infamous for its human rights abuses:

Thousands languish in jail. Human rights activists branded as terrorists are on death row on charges that Human Rights Watch says “do not resemble recognised crimes”. I know of one business leader who was strung upside down, naked and tortured. Nothing has been heard of him since. In Saudi, you are one social media post away from death.

And in a savage twist of irony, the NMH currently has an “interactive murder-mystery” exhibit:

The Natural History Museum, which is hosting the Saudi Embassy bash tonight, has a ‘Crime Scene Live’ event to ‘catch a killer in this interactive murder mystery’.

Last week a Saudi journalist vanished, presumed murdered, after entering Turkey’s Saudi Consulate. https://t.co/BvOlFSN1yn

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) October 11, 2018

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Yemen

A brutal Saudi-led war against Yemen is, according to the UN, the “worst humanitarian crisis” in the world. And on 9 August alone, a Saudi-led coalition bomb hit a school bus in Yemen, killing 40 children and 11 adults. Yet UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt and the government still defend the Britain’s links to Saudi Arabia.

MPs, meanwhile, were also reportedly invited to the NMH event:

Invites for tonight's grotesque reception for the Saudi dictatorship at @NHM_London have been sent to MPs. It would be helpful if MPs invited publicly declare that they are not attending this sickening event. pic.twitter.com/zLrQllGhsT

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) October 11, 2018

The Saudi dictatorship is a key Western ally. Heavily linked to terrorism and the escalation of the war in Syria, Riyadh has also faced allegations of war crimes in Yemen. Despite denials by the Saudi foreign minister, a UN report in 2017 stated that:

Coalition airstrikes continued to be the leading cause of child casualties as well as overall civilian casualties. 

And the UK is also complicit in this violence through arms sales to the regime. In a press release, CAAT explained:

The regime is also the world’s largest buyers of UK arms, which it is using in the ongoing bombardment of Yemen. Since the bombing of Yemen began in 2015, the UK has licensed £4.7 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia.

BIRD, CAAT, Jones, and many others planned to protest outside the NHM from 6.30pm, because the Saudi Arabian regime deals in death.

No excuses, no justification. Enough is enough.

And now, the NHM is tainted with the blood of innocents too.

Get Involved!

– Write to your local MP about British military assistance to Saudi Arabia.

– Support Campaign Against Arms Trade.

– Read more of the Canary’s coverage of Saudi Arabia and the crisis in Yemen.

– Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.

Featured images via Marc Lozano/Flickr and screengrab