AbstractThe proposed reclamation of Benoa Bay triggered huge demonstrations that rejected the project in the name of Balinese identity. Yet, the politicization of identity seems ill‐suited to an anti‐reclamation movement, because the location‐specific costs of reclamation encourage local, not regional, resistance. The politicization of identity likewise has few precedents in Bali's own history, where politics usually revolves around class, caste, and region. This article explains this divergent outcome with reference to the specific social and institutional context of opposition to reclamation. Specifically, the anti‐reclamation movement embraced Balinese identity as a motivating principle because identity provided the only means to mobilize cross‐class protests large enough to block the project. Using the Bali Post archive and primary sources, the article shows that leaders of the opposition constructed reclamation as a threat to Balinese identity only after parochial, region‐specific efforts failed to block the project.