Protest US ties to Saudi Arabia

“More and more Americans are questioning why Saudi Arabia—a country that spreads extremism and is so repressive internally—continues to be a U.S. ally,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, author of an upcoming book Kingdom of the Unjust.

Saudi Arabia is rife with human rights abuses. Human rights activists and bloggers like Raif Badawi are subject to public flogging and long prison sentences; anti-terrorism laws criminalize any form of political dissent; there is no freedom of assembly, no political parties, no national elections.

There has been increasing U.S. public criticism of the Saudi regime, including outrage at Saudi Arabia’s recent threat to withdraw billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if Congress passes a bill allowing victims of 9/11 and other terrorist attacks to sue foreign governments.

On January 2, the Saudi government executed a prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, along with 46 other dissidents who were mainly members of the Saudi-minority Shia community, causing outrage among Shia inside the kingdom and abroad. Sheikh al-Nimr’s nephew, along with two other Saudi youth, face the threat of execution for their participation in peaceful protests during the Arab Spring, protests the three youth took part in while they were still juveniles.