What Israel Chose Not to Know About Somalia

[Deeq A.]

Garowe (PP Editorial) — Israeli commentariat has begun to unpack what is increasingly seen as a serious diplomatic misstep by Benjamin Netanyahu following Israel’s recognition of a breakaway region in northern Somalia as an independent state.

Seth J. Frantzman, a columnist for  the Jerusalem Post, described the reaction of the international community to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as fundamentally grounded in the framework of the UN Charter and international law. He noted that, in the eyes of the world, the Somaliland administration is regarded as a secessionist entity within the Federal Republic of Somalia. Frantzman further argued that Somalia’s borders, like those of many countries in Africa and the Middle East, are rooted in the colonial era.

What he did not sufficiently acknowledge is that the inviolability of colonial borders is a cardinal principle of the Charter of the African Union. Somalia itself was once accused of irredentism for claiming to be a victim of arbitrary colonial borders imposed by European powers. Frantzman mentioned the 1977 war between Somalia any Ethiopia, during which Somalia was accused of attempting to redraw colonial boundaries by force.

Had Frantzman engaged more deeply with the scholarship on Somalia by Jewish academics such as Saadia Touval and David Laitin, he would have better understood the historical roots of Somali nationalism. Touval, who taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, authored Somali Nationalism, a seminal monograph on the emergence and evolution of nationalist sentiment in Somalia. No serious study of Somalia’s post-colonial political history is complete without reference to this work.

Touval’s observations on pre-independence political parties in what was then British Somaliland remain particularly instructive. Writing on the Somali Youth League (S.Y.L.) and the Somali National League (S.N.L.), he noted: “The political programs of the two parties, S.Y.L. and S.N.L., were fairly similar. The S.Y.L. program was essentially the same as that of the Somalia S.Y.L., that is, the independence and unification of the Somali people, the cessation of tribal feuding, and the encouragement of economic, social, and political development. The S.N.L. program emphasized the same goals. The main difference between the parties was in their tribal bases. The S.Y.L. derived its principal support from Darod tribes (Dolbahanta and East Sanaag Clan) and the S.N.L. drew its main support from the Ishaq tribes.” 

Touval’s analysis proved prescient during the 2023 conflict in Laascaanood, when Harti clans mobilised to defend their city and their rights as Somali citizens against a secessionist ideology that casts them as outsiders within parts of Northern Somalia .

The  decision to recognise the Somaliland administration as a country not only risks reigniting conflict in northern Somalia but also emboldens Daesh, which may regroup if Puntland is forced to divert resources towards countering secessionist advances. The secessionist claims are often justified through selective interpretations of colonial demarcations imposed by the British Empire in Somali territories.

Secessionist authorities in Hargeisa  now appear set on a collision course not only with the Federal Government of Somalia,  but also with Puntland State of Somalia and the North East State of Somalia. Benjamin Netanyahu, widely regarded as a war criminal, should be restrained before his actions further destabilise an already fragile region.        

© Puntland Post, 2025