Opinion | Naming the street by the Saudi embassy for Khashoggi is fitting symbolism. We need policy to match.
D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) introduced plans to introduce laws that will designate the highway in entrance of the Saudi Embassy, on New Hampshire Avenue between Virginia Avenue and F Street in Northwest, as Jamal Khashoggi Way. Khashoggi, 59, a journalist who lived in Virginia in self-imposed exile from Saudi Arabia and whose columns appeared in The Post, was killed on Oct. 2, 2018, after being lured to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on the pretext of offering him papers for his upcoming wedding ceremony. After he was strangled, his physique was dismembered and disposed of however by no means recovered; the Saudi regime hasn’t had the decency to produce his stays. Instead, enabled to the finish by President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the crown prince and his regime have lied about the premeditated homicide and sought to dodge all accountability.
Ms. Pinto mentioned her proposed laws was prompted partly by the latest assault on the Capitol, which included assaults on journalists. “Jamal Khashoggi,” she mentioned in a statement, “knew that by shining a light on Saudi Arabia and seeking truth, he risked his freedom and, indeed, his life. Journalists around the world and here in America face similar dangers every day, and we must never let those who seek to intimidate them succeed, because when journalism is under assault, our freedom and democracy are under assault.”
With the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on Jan. 20, the United States has an opportunity to honor Khashoggi’s life in additional substantive methods as nicely. Mr. Biden and lots of of his incoming officers have spoken clearly about the reckless amorality of the crown prince. They can reorient U.S. policy to clarify that no wholesome, regular relationship is potential with Saudi Arabia till it punishes these accountable for Khashoggi’s homicide; frees the ladies’s rights activists and others who’re being held and had been tortured for peaceable protest and expression; stops holding hostage the relations of Saudi dissidents overseas; and ceases its warfare crimes in neighboring Yemen.
Such a policy, per American and international values of respect for the dignity of human life and human rights, would possibly hasten the day when Saudis have a authorities they are often pleased with. When that day comes, Saudi diplomats themselves shall be proud to say that they go to work on daily basis on Jamal Khashoggi Way.
