Israel has become the first nation to recognize Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation. Somaliland declared unilaterally independence from Somalia in 1991, a move that led to diplomatic and economic isolation.
Still, this “unrecognized” nation managed to build a relatively stable and functioning civil society compared with Somalia, which continues to struggle with political polarization, declining economy, and terrorism by the Al-Shabaab Islamist group.
Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, described Israel’s recognition as “the happiest day in my life” and a “historic moment,” stating on X/Twitter that it marks the beginning of a strategic partnership aimed at advancing benefits for both countries and strengthening regional peace and security.
President Abdullahi’s happiness was shared by millions of Somalilanders who took to the streets celebrating this milestone achievement. Tens of thousands of videos were uploaded on social media showing their jubilation. Many also posted messages of gratitude to the State of Israel.
As anticipated, the news of the Israeli recognition made a huge eruption on social media. On the one hand, hundreds of thousands of Israelis, Kurds, Emiratis, Moroccans, and other ethnic and religious minorities including Druze took to social media to congratulate the people of Somaliland. On the other hand, an avalanche of the usual Turkish-Islamist-Arabist hateful rhetoric characterized by the denial of the other, conspiracies, and propaganda set the agenda in Ankara, Doha, and Tehran, with their proxies following suit.
Somalia's government describes Israel's action as 'unlawful'
It's fathomable that the first reaction of Somalia’s government would be harshly worded describing Israel’s decision as an “unlawful action,” and that Somaliland is an “inseparable” part of Somalia. What’s staggering is that the leadership of another people fighting to have their own state rejects another people’s desire to have their own.
The announcement by the “State of Palestine” was an unprecedented case of unmatched hypocrisy. The official channel of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a lengthy statement on X categorically and unequivocally rejecting what they called a deliberate attack by Israel.
“The Ministry further stresses that this rejected recognition forms part of Israel’s broader policies, as an occupying colonial power, aimed at destabilizing international and regional peace and security,” it reads. Mustafa Barghouti tweeted that “Israel is the only country in the world that recognized the separatist ‘Somaliland’ in an effort [sic] to destabilize the Horn of Africa and the red sea area [sic].”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu added more fuel to the fire by dishing out the usual Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy against Israel, posting that “Israel’s recognition of Somaliland today is not a distant development, but an alarm bell. It is part of a broader strategy to fragment Islamic countries and neutralize key states through encirclement.”
The Israeli recognition of Somaliland and the opposing camp’s rhetoric against it is a “copy paste” of the Kurdish tragedy. On 25 September 2017, millions of Kurds living in the Kurdish Region in Iraq held an independence referendum, and 93% voted in favor of independence.
The Kurdish region is Iraq’s most advanced and modern one. The Iraqi Supreme Court nullified the results, and one of the key outcomes was the seizure by the Iranian-backed Shia Iraqi government in Baghdad of the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Iran and Turkey threaten the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) with severe sanctions.
The enemies of the Kurds in Baghdad, Ankara, and Tehran said they would take “all means necessary” to prevent the Kurds from establishing their own state. At the time, Damascus stayed out of it, as it was dealing with its own troubles with its ongoing civil war.
ISRAEL WAS the only country that supported the 2017 Kurdish independence referendum. A few years earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “The Kurds have proven a commitment to political moderation, and they are worthy of their own political independence” and that “Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state.”
No surprises here either: The Palestinians – the people who want the whole world to fight for them so that they can have their own state – categorically rejected the Kurdish independence referendum. Saeb Erekat, a long-time peace negotiator and an adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with the Al Arabiya Channel that “Kurdish independence would be a poisoned sword against the Arabs.”
Barghouti described Israel as the only country to “recognize the separatist Somaliland,” and Davutoglu’s Israeli recognition of Somaliland is part of a broader strategy to fragment Islamic countries and neutralize key states through encirclement.
The vocabularies of separatism or agents of Israel are outdated and have been deployed for decades to legitimize the massacres in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq committed against Kurdish civilians over the past decades. Arab, Turkish, and Iranian fascists and Islamists alike have launched vicious campaigns against the Kurds, and always used Israel or The Jews as a scapegoat.
In 1966, then-Iraqi defense minister Abd al-Aziz al-Uqayali blamed the Kurds of Iraq for seeking to establish a “second Israel” in the region. Sixty years later, the term “second Israel” is still perpetuated, claiming Kurdistan is imitating “Yahudistan,” meaning the land of the Jews or Israel.
JUST A couple of weeks ago, Turkish media claimed that the Kurdish-led SDF “is now in Zionist Israel’s lap,” and that it is Israel’s “strategy to divide Syria via the SDF.” Similar rhetoric is now being deployed against the more than six million Somalilanders, using Barghouti’s own words describing them as a bunch of “separatists” and accusing Israel of tearing and dividing, saying that Israel seeks to “destabilize the Horn of Africa.” This is similar to what the late Saeb Erekat said about Kurdish independence as being “a poisoned sword against the Arabs.”
Not long ago, a Turkish newspaper affiliated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ran a “scoop” claiming that the Israeli government is holding clandestine talks with Kurdish leaders in Erbil (Kurdistan-Iraq) to relocate tens of thousands of Israeli Jewish Kurds to the Kurdish region in Iraq. These kinds of conspiracies are a regular occurrence in Turkish, Iranian and Qatari media to appeal to antisemitic elements in their societies.
The majority of Muslim states, including the so-called “State of Palestine” view both Zionism and Kurdish nationalism as projects of Western colonial imperialism. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly accused the US for seeking to create a “new Israel” in the region due to its support of the Kurdish people.
I salute the Israeli government for becoming the first nation to recognize Somaliland. And I am happy to see so many Israelis and Kurds taking to social media to congratulate Somalilanders on this truly historic moment. To my Somaliland sisters and brothers, I offer massive congratulations!
The writer is a Kurdish-Swedish journalist and researcher on Middle Eastern affairs. She previously worked as a field producer and journalist for a number of Qatari media outlets.