I don’t think it’s fair to say OP has ‘obviously’ been distracted by it but I otherwise agree.

I don’t think veganism really works to whitewash the crimes of either the Israeli or Saudi Arabian government. Even for vegans, those crimes are probably some of the first things they think of when we hear of those countries. It is good that Tel Aviv has a decent vegan scene, and it is good that Al Waleed is having some vegan influence. However, I don’t think veganism is considered so good to most people that it really does anything to mask those issues (and it certainly doesn’t make up for them.) For what it’s worth (not much) I do agree that the praise of Al Waleed is worse since Tel Aviv is made up of many more parts than the Saudi Arabian royalty and I don’t think the average Israeli resident has as much power as Al Waleed.