Just after Christmas last year, Israel took the unprecedented move of being the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland as an independent state — about 35 years after it declared independence from Somalia.
It was, by all appearances, a sudden and unexpected move — especially to those who know nothing about Somaliland and its history, which, I would dare suggest, includes a great many of us who share the same continent as Somaliland.
Why, then, did Israel make such a move? Why is the story of Somaliland significant, and why was Israel’s decision to recognise it met with such hostility by everyone from the AU to Saudi Arabia and the UN, which promptly held an emergency session in response?
Last, what does this recognition of Somaliland have to do with the widespread recognition of Palestine as an independent country — recognition that grew substantially over the past year as major Western countries such as the UK and France added their names to the long list of countries that already did so?
Somaliland vs Somalia
Somalia is, of course, a country located on the Horn of Africa. It declared independence in 1960 by uniting territories previously held by British, Italian and French colonial powers. And it has been beset by major instability since. From a coup de tat in 1969 through a succession of authoritarian regimes, civil wars and a rise in radical Islamism and Jihadism (most notoriously, the terror group Al Shabaab), on the one hand, and honest-to-goodness seafaring pirates on the other, Somalia has gained notoriety for its low quality of life, poor economy, terrorism, high crime levels and lack of a stable government for more than three decades.
Somaliland is a rather different story. It is extremely poor (as an independent country it would rank as the fourth lowest GDP in the world) and suffers from many of the problems typical of a particularly poor country in the “Global South”. And like Somalia, it has been particularly hard hit by climate change in recent years, suffering endless years of drought and famine, destruction of crops and the death of livestock (and therefore livelihoods), resulting in a critical level of mass hunger that is a long way away from being properly addressed.
However, since breaking away from the rest of Somalia in 1991, Somaliland (comprising the northern territories that were once colonised by Britain) has become a country of uncommon stability. It holds regular democratic elections. It’s a presidential democracy defined by a robust constitution based on the principles of “peace, co-operation, democracy and plurality of political parties”. It has a stable (if weak) locally traded currency. And its overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population has followed its government — or, more likely, vice versa — of utterly rejecting Islamist extremism and Jihadism in all its forms.
With some tribal in-fighting, government overreach and some rather less-than-liberal laws, Somaliland is far from perfect, but it is a proper, functioning state, based on many of the same principles that liberal-democracies hold dear. It is, in short, everything that Somalia is not.
This certainly doesn’t explain why Israel waited so long to recognise Somaliland, but the bigger question is why no-one else has joined in.
Why Israel decided to recognise Somaliland
There’s no two ways about it: Israel’s decision to recognise Somaliland at this time is undoubtedly in large part based on self-interest. It’s why any country takes this sort of step. Because despite being a tiny country with democratic ties to only a small handful of countries, it is of vital strategic importance to Israel in its ongoing war with Iran’s Yemen-based proxy, the Houthis.
Since October 7 2023 the Houthis have fired countless long-range missiles at Israel and have also caused major issues with American and European trading ships. But Yemen is nowhere near Israel. Depending on the route, something like 2,200km-2,800km separate the two countries — or the entirety of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Hence the long-range missiles.
Somaliland, on the other hand, is separated from Yemen only by the Gulf of Aden: a few hundred kilometres at most. Along with its proximity, that Somaliland is one of the few countries in the vicinity not to be currently struggling with Islamist extremism makes it the ideal place for Israel to take the fight to the Houthis.
At the same time, hopefully this recognition will also come with deeper ties between Israel and Somaliland, which would be a huge boon to the struggling, starving African country. Israel remains one of the world leaders — if not the world leader — in agricultural science and technology and is known for its ground-breaking work in irrigation under harsh conditions.
There is more to decision than just military expedience though, whether intentional or not. By recognising Somaliland Israel has in effect called out the international community’s approach to post-colonial Africa and the Global South, in general, and especially towards Israel/Palestine.
Why the rest of the world has not
The underlying reason why the rest of the world has not recognised Somaliland’s sovereignty, and why it is so furious with Israel for doing so, is because of fears of separatism elsewhere. In other words, by recognising Somaliland as a separate state from Somalia without the approval of Somalia, the international community is worried that it might lead to other, often bigger and more lucrative territories, doing the same to their respective countries. This could include Quebec declaring sovereignty from Canada, Scotland from the UK or Catalonia from Spain, but would at least mean other African countries with sharp tribal divides would do the same.
It’s not an invalid concern, but it does show the fundamental fragility of the artificial borders created by the end of colonialism — and indeed, borders in general. And not just in the so-called Global South either. It’s these sorts of questions that drove the divisions in Ireland and continue to plague Taiwan and its quest to break free of China. Certainly, it’s very much reflected in the shifting borders between Tsarist Russia, the USSR and modern-day Russia. And, of course, by most wars not defined by religion or scarce resources — though come to think of it, usually even then.
There are legal processes through which states can become independent, but they’re pretty clearly not up to the task of properly settling disputes between territories and peoples that happen to have been lumped into the same country, often by former colonial powers who still didn’t really understand the complex relationships between the different people they colonised. The most egregious case of this, of course, can be found in the at times arbitrary redrawing of borders in the Middle East by the British, the aftershocks of which are still very much being felt.
So, again, concerns are understandable, but the particulars of Somaliland reflect an abiding condescension towards the people of the Global South by the so-called “developed world” — that persists regardless of whether you call it the Global South, the Third World or the developing world. There is a reluctance on behalf of Europe, the US and the rest of the so-called “Global North” to allow the people of former colonies to sort out their own messes.
Somaliland, for all of its problems, is a solid repudiation of such a viewpoint. Seeing the unbearable mess Somalia itself became, the people of Somaliland decided to withdraw to the borders of British-ruled northern Somalia and to create a fully functioning state that operates entirely independently of Somalia. It contains everything needed for a territory to be considered a country: set borders, a clear central government, its own currency and its own tribal identity — albeit one based in part on their colonised past. It even has its own military and its own constitution.
This, of course, is in stark contrast to another territory that meets none of these conditions but has been recognised as a country by almost everyone.
Palestine vs Somaliland
As of right now, 157 of the 193 members of the UN recognise Palestine as an independent state. This despite the fact that “Palestine” has no clear borders (the so-called 1967 borders were never ratified, not least because of Arab refusal to do so) and no clear government (the Palestinian Authority has no power in Gaza and Israel currently controls or co-controls a large part of the West Bank). It does not have its own currency. It does have its own national identity, admittedly, even if it is an identity that only properly separated itself from other Levantine Arabs in the 1960s.
This is not to say that the Palestinians don’t deserve self-determination, and it certainly doesn’t mean they have no claims to the land or that Israel has treated them with with perfect fairness and dignity over the decades. But it does mean the state of Palestine does not, at present, exist. And it also means the only way it will come into existence will be through serious, open negotiations between a properly representative Palestinian leadership and whoever is leading Israel at that particular time. Certainly, it won’t come about until the Palestinians follow Somaliland’s example in a) purging itself of radical Islamist elements and b) merely desiring a state of their own, not the destruction of another.
Which is why it is so rich that the same body that utterly refuses the people of Somaliland peaceful self-determination because of fears that it might upset the international order are all too happy to grant sovereignty to something that neither qualifies as a country by international law, nor benefits at all by such unilateral recognition.
But then, this is entirely consistent with that same international body’s desire to keep the Palestinians in a perennial state of victimhood by refusing them actual self-determination — emphasis on self — and maintaining their refugee status far beyond what is either useful or consistent with how other refugees are treated.
So, yes, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland may primarily be based on self-interest and strategic usefulness, but it also acts as a clear rebuke to the condescensions, hypocrisies and double standards of the international community towards Somaliland, towards the Palestinians and Israelis, and towards the post-colonial Global South overall.
• Preskovsky is a freelance writer.
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