Saudi Arabia is ruled by one of the most abhorrent dictatorships on Earth. Its totalitarian, theocratic regime deprives millions of its citizens, especially women, of the most fundamental rights. It beheads dissidents and people who are gay. It is currently pummelling Yemen with weapons supplied by Britain and the US – causing thousands of deaths, including those of children slaughtered on a school bus. Five million Yemeni children are at risk of famine. The regime exports extremism across the globe, radicalising potential terrorists and posing a grave threat to British national security and the lives of our citizens. The regime currently stands accused of kidnapping and murdering and dismembering journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last week.
Tonight, the National History Museum in London – a public institution whose trustees are mostly appointed by the government – hosts a reception for the Saudi embassy. That it is hosting an evening of celebration for one of the most extreme regimes on Earth while Yemeni children starve to death is beneath contempt. It has released a statement clarifying that “no museum staff are attending as guests or speaking at the event” (irrelevant), but that such events are an “important source of external funding”. Let us be absolutely clear about this. The cash received by the Natural History Museum is blood money.
The museum insists that these events do not represent “an endorsement of their [the client’s] product, services or views”. Really? So the museum has absolutely no moral standards about whom it receives money from in exchange for letting out what its contemptibly amoral statement describes as “our iconic spaces”? Would it be perfectly happy offering its “iconic spaces” to North Korea’s embassy: after all, it’s not “endorsing” the country, just taking its money? What about Islamic State? Does Saudi Arabia not publicly behead women it accuses of being witches, or sentence non-believers to death? Does it not export extremism that has helped spawn the likes of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Isis? What exactly is the moral cut-off point for the Natural History Museum, if any exists? When I asked its press office, it refused to say.
As Campaign Against Arms Trade have put it: “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 crisis on the people of Yemen.” Indeed, those attending the reception tonight are expected to leave safely, which is more than can be said for Khashoggi after his visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Shamefully, journalists are among those reportedly attending, along with British MPs.
In a just world, Saudi Arabia would be an international pariah. Until we get there, British civil society should show some basic morality. Protests have been called for tonight at 6.30pm outside the museum: people should turn out in force. If the Natural History Museum does not cancel a reception for this blood-spattered regime, its reputation will be permanently trashed. It will have shown the world that money matters more than the most fundamental human rights. This is as grubby as it gets.