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Fantasy Meets Reality: The Tragedy Beneath Disney’s Expansion into the UAE [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-09

Disney has long been known as “The Happiest Place on Earth,” a phrase that evokes innocence, imagination, and a kind of sanitized perfection. For decades, the company has built its brand around the idea of global harmony—animated stories of justice, kindness, and moral triumph. However, as Disney expands its physical and corporate footprint into regions embroiled in complex and violent geopolitical realities, that slogan begins to crack under the weight of global suffering.

Disney has announced its plans to bring a new theme park to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country that has rapidly emerged as a hub for Western tourism and investment. On the surface, this makes business sense: the UAE offers luxury infrastructure, political stability (for investors), and a booming market for global entertainment brands. But what many don’t know—or choose not to confront—is the UAE’s alleged role in fueling one of today’s deadliest and least-covered atrocities: the genocide unfolding in Sudan.

According to multiple reports from humanitarian organizations and investigative journalists, the UAE has provided support—directly or indirectly—to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of widespread atrocities in Sudan, including ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and the systematic targeting of civilians in Darfur. This support has allegedly come in the form of weapons, logistics, and financial aid, contributing to a brutal conflict that has displaced millions and killed tens of thousands.

By establishing a presence in the UAE, Disney may not be funding this genocide directly, but its brand and business interests lend legitimacy and economic strength to a regime accused of fueling it. In an era when corporations wield influence comparable to states, this kind of entanglement is not ethically neutral.

There’s a deep irony here. Disney markets itself as a global force for good—its stories urge viewers to stand up to tyrants, to protect the vulnerable, to believe that light triumphs over darkness. Yet in the real world, the company is investing in a nation that, by many credible accounts, is actively abetting darkness.

To be clear, the ethical failure is not Disney’s alone. It is part of a larger pattern in which global corporations chase profit while ignoring—or suppressing—human rights concerns. Whether it's tech companies selling surveillance tools to authoritarian regimes, or luxury brands profiting from forced labor, the pattern is consistent: economic interest too often takes precedence over ethical responsibility.

However, Disney, because of what it symbolizes, carries unique moral weight. This is a company that shapes the imaginations of children, that claims to inspire hope and teach values. To build a park in a country implicated in genocide is to desecrate those values, turning fantasy into farce.

Critics may argue that politics should not interfere with business or that Disney has no control over a host country’s foreign policy. But in a world so interconnected, neutrality can amount to complicity. Choosing where to invest, where to build, and whom to partner with is a political act, especially when it comes with the Disney seal of approval.

As thousands suffer and die in Sudan, a new theme park will one day rise in the deserts of the UAE, welcoming families with fireworks and fairy tales. It will be built on sand, but also—many would argue—on silence.

The happiest place on earth cannot be built on the suffering of others. And if it is, then it’s time we question whose happiness Disney is really serving.

We all can take action. The U.S. Senate is considering S. Res. 126 to strengthen the arms embargo on Sudan. Please let your senators know the time has come for the U.S. to step up and end the #genocide.

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