How were people affected by the construction of Neom in Saudi Arabia?

Residents in the Neom construction area were forcibly evicted to make way for Saudi Arabia's futuristic megaproject. While the government provided financial compensation to help them rebuild their lives elsewhere, the displacement was not universally accepted. Some residents refused to relocate, organizing resistance by signing a petition to protest their forced removal. This situation highlights the human cost of Saudi Arabia's ambitious modernization efforts, revealing tension between national development goals and the preservation of established communities and their connections to ancestral lands.