Somaliland Clerics Condemn Use of Secession Cause Against Palestine

[Deeq A.]

Sheikh Mustafe Haji Ismail: ”If you, Somalilanders, feel mistreated, you should not be applauding the suffering of Palestinians.”

Hargeisa (PP Comment) — Last week, Sheikh Mustafe Haji Ismail delivered a sermon on the recognition of the Somaliland Administration by the State of Israel. Sheikh Mustafe did not object to the right of his people to seek secession or to agree to rejoining the union. What he found abhorrent and unacceptable is the use of the Somaliland cause to oppose the right of Palestinians to statehood. “If we cannot help Palestinians, we should not be giving succour to Israel, their oppressor,” said Sheikh Mustafe.

He criticised the argument that some Muslim countries have already established diplomatic ties with Israel. “Israel is a country whose army killed 70,000 Palestinians and committed genocide, and is widely rejected even in the West. If you, Somalilanders, feel mistreated, you should not be applauding the suffering of Palestinians,” Sheikh Mustafe added. Professor Abdirahman Abdullahi (Badiyow) somewhat echoed Sheikh Mustafe. “One of the loudest moral pillars the separatists in Somaliland have leaned on is the horrific suffering of people in Hargeisa in 1988, but when Israel recognises Somaliland and Somaliland rushes to celebrate, that entire narrative collapses under its own weight,” tweeted Abdirahman Badiyow.

The question put to Benjamin Netanyahu by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist newspaper is worth quoting at length: “Many people around the world see the state of Israel as a country that is exclusively using military force, that has killed 70,000 people in Gaza, that is doing nothing to create a sustainable future for people there. That is a country, you know, you’ve been accused of being a war criminal—that if you went to several countries in Europe, you’re going to get arrested. This is not just mad campus radicalism; this is a feeling around the world. You said it to us just now: in public opinion around the world, Israel is doing very poorly. And it’s doing very poorly because people see a country that is behaving in a way that is not compatible with being a liberal democracy. And therefore, I think you have a problem. And you know that you need to win the battle of public opinion, and you’re losing it. You’ve absolutely lost it in Europe, but much more worryingly for you, you’re losing it in America. And I think that what you’ve just told me about fanaticism is true in part, but it is not going to shape public opinion. People are going to roll their eyes and say: he’s saying that anybody who says anything critical about Israel is anti-Semitic. Prime Minister, it really isn’t just extreme radicals. There are huge numbers of people who are concerned about Israel’s behaviour, frankly, including people like me.” Visibly shaken, Netanyahu fumbled an unconvincing answer.

The 2014 poem on Gaza by Abdimalik Oldon.

In Hargeisa and even in the diaspora, many Somalilanders question the decision by the Somaliland Administration Government to align itself with Israel, despite the official position of the African Union, the United Nations and the Arab League being a two-state solution. Nearly twelve years ago, Abdulmalk Oldon, a sheikh and peacemaker and poet in Hargeisa, recited an Arabic poem in support of the Palestinians in Gaza for their resilience. In 2024 and 2025, people in Hargeisa made fundraising efforts for people in Gaza. Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist, said that people cannot discuss the absurdity of the Gaza resort proposed by President Trump to whitewash the war crimes committed by Israel.

“What happened to all the Qur’anic teachings we have been involved in for many years in Hargeisa if people are easily endorsing the oppression of Palestinians by Israel?” said another Sheikh in Hargeisa, to understand the moral cowardice that caught many religious leaders off guard.

© Puntland Post, 2026