One of the world's most sacred places is being turned into a luxury resort. Because of course it is. Unesco World Heritage site is getting luxury hotels, villas and shopping bazaars.The plan includes opening hotels, eco-lodges and a large visitor center, as well as expanding the small nearby airport and a cable car to Mount Moses.
"It is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe. Already the tribe, known as the Guardians of St Catherine, have had their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little or no compensation. They have even been forced to take bodies out of their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new car park.
The project may have been presented as desperately needed sustainable development which will boost tourism, but it has also been imposed on the Bedouin against their will, says Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has worked closely with Sinai tribes.
"This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community," he told the BBC."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c707kx2nk7go?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us