READ: How @JoeBiden can strike a blow against #Saudi Arabia's human rights violations - @DAWNmenaorg @Mikeyeis @aalodah explain cnn.com/2021/02/23/opi…
“Since MBS took power, travel bans have become a key instrument in his struggle to extinguish any semblance of dissent. MBS has not only gone after activists &dissidents, but also has prevented their families from leaving the country to bully and coerce them into keeping silent.”
“Nineteen members of the family of Saudi Muslim scholar and political prisoner @salman_alodah have been banned from travel outside #Saudi Arabia, including six great-grandchildren, the youngest just a 1-year-old. “
“Travel bans constitute an integral part of the government's apparatus of oppression, a first step along a continuum, which, depending on the whims of its unelected leaders, might well progress to detention or disappearance.”
“Sarah and Omar Aljabri, ages 21 &22, children of former intelligence official #SaadAljabri who fled the country to Canada, have made their way along that continuum, from travel ban to secret trial to detention in an undisclosed location. They are children being used as pawns
“Biden has an obligation to temper the worst excesses of a leader who has a penchant for sadistic abuses &wanton wars that have harmed &destabilized region. MBS, is, after all, America's liability as long as the US provides him with billions in military weapons &political cover.”
Ban the banners: A forceful US response to Saudi ban would help fortify community of dissident Arab exiles who could well play a critical role in future of region &it would position US in larger struggle exactly where we belong -on side of dissidents, civil society & rule of law.
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