Israel was the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland since 1991. The next test is whether recognition can become an equal, practical partnership that improves lives without reducing Somaliland to a military foothold. 

When Israel recognized the Republic of Somaliland on December 26, 2025, the news traveled quickly through Hargeisa. I watched Somalilanders exchange messages of celebration, disbelief and gratitude. After 35 years of self-government without diplomatic recognition, many felt a door had opened. 

For many Israelis, Somaliland may have first appeared as a strategic location across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. That geography matters, but it is not the whole story. Somaliland is not simply a port, an airfield or a position on a military map. It is a society that has spent decades building a state under conditions few recognized states have had to endure. 

The story did not begin in 1991

Somaliland’s sovereignty claim begins before Somalia’s collapse. The former British Somaliland Protectorate became independent on June 26, 1960. Five days later, it united with the former Italian-administered territory to create the Somali Republic, as summarized in a United Nations history of Somalia. 

The union did not deliver the equality or security Somalilanders expected. After dictatorship, war and devastating state violence in the north, Somaliland declared the restoration of its sovereignty in 1991 within the former protectorate’s borders. 

Somalia rejects that interpretation and continues to regard Somaliland as part of its territory. But this is not an ordinary case of a province suddenly deciding to leave an established state. It is a dispute arising from the attempted union of two formerly separate territories, the collapse of that union and more than three decades of separate government. 

Over those decades, Somaliland built its own administration, security institutions, currency and electoral system. Its record matters, although it should not be romanticized. The international mission observing the November 2024 elections found a well-managed and peaceful election day, an opposition........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)