As the Middle East is drawn into war, expats and influencers are under pressure to only share the positive side of the UAE. In reality many are at risk of being put behind bars, and often find the UK government has little interest in helping them get out
  • lazynooblet@lazysoci.alEnglish
    5·
    12 hours ago

    Murdering villagers for a fake greenwashing project.

    Literally chopping up journalists

    I’m trying to find details of where the UAE did these, do you have a link? Or it could be that you are referring to Saudi Arabia as that’s the only results I get for these.

    • Deestan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      5 hours ago

      The two countries are deeply economically tied, are political allies, share much of the power structure. I don’t think it makes sense to separate them in this context of morality, corruption level, or personal risk.

      But it was an unconscious simplification that may not apply to others judgements. Apologies for the confusing inaccuracy.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Accuracy isn’t valued as much as cheering for the right team. The UAE are bad guys, so any comment disparaging them is good, and any comment “defending” them, even to ask “Wasn’t that the Saudis?”, is bad.

        The same mentality gets you downvoted if you don’t like Iran sponsoring terrorists (“The US are the real terrorists”) or if you thought killing Israeli civilians at a concert was uncool (“They’re occupying that land, so they deserve whatever they get”).

        • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 hours ago

          And so you too are downvoted for writing the truth.
          Of course it’s not everybody, but there’s a lot of it. I can’t even say the example with Iranian terrorists is hyperbole, because although most would obviously not support terrorists, I have seen things quite similar to it occur here.
          An example could be the case where Iran would bomb a 100% civilian data center was generally celebrated here. Not that I was one bit better, because honestly I don’t think that data center has any value to the people. But in principle it remains wrong, but on the other hand USA deserves to be taught a lesson.
          Clearly there’s a difference between an opinion and facts. And although my opinion may not always align with higher ideals, because you may need to break some eggs to make an omelet, but our opinions should at least be based on the truth. And the truth is it was NOT UAE that tortured and killed a journalist, it was Saudi Arabia, and nobody should be downvoted for posting facts IMO.

    • d00ery@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      12 hours ago

      Trump acknowledged and dismissed it when the Saudi ruler visited in 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/18/trump-bin-salman-visit-jamal-khashoggi?hl=en-GB

      His body was dismembered and disposed of in some way that was never publicly revealed.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi.

      A Saudi citizen who refused government orders to give up his home to make way for a new mega-project was killed by security forces, according to Saudi activists.

      “The Saudi government has no right to uproot our people from their lands and homes for their projects that don’t benefit the region or the residents,” said Abutayah.

      Abutayah alleged she has received death threats from Saudi agents because of her opposition to the government.

      The Red Sea development, known as NEOM, is a mega-project envisioned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Tabuk province.

      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/15/saudi-forces-kill-man-who-refused-to-give-up-property-activists