For a country so upset about recognition being afforded peoples under their thumb and control, the Israelis have decided to get into the state recognition business with festive aplomb.  Africa’s Somaliland presented itself as a suitable candidate, an entity that remains part of Somalia but has asserted its own autonomy since 1991.

Israel’s recognition on 26 December of that entity had a vengeful sting to it.  With a majority of UN Member States recognising the rubble and rump of a State of Palestine, despite arguments by the Netanyahu government that this was a reward for terrorism, the Israelis have clearly decided to turn the matter on its head. 

Israel’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Jonathan Miller, captured the moment by saying that the recognition of Somaliland was not a “hostile step toward Somalia” when it evidently was, and did not “preclude future dialogue between the parties”, as well as it might.  The salesman in Miller seemed to come through. “Recognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shamelessly plagiarised the lingo and language kit of those Member States of the UN who dared treat the Palestinians as a national group worthy of acknowledged sovereignty.  In a call with Somaliland President Abdirhaman Mohamed Abdullahi on 26 December, Netanyahu stressed the importance of Somaliland’s “right to self-determination” in recognising it.

READ: Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland illegitimate, unacceptable: Turkish President Erdogan

In a paper published in November 2025 by the Israeli-based Institute for National........

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