Israel and Somaliland: Assessing Possible Cooperation in the Horn of Africa

[Deeq A.]

Somaliland and Israel Flags

Introduction

Israel has been long involved in the African continent since its search for settlement and the colonial era. Perhaps the most remarkable era was Israel as a state, the decolonization era, and the post-colonial process. Israel at that time was looking for potential new states for cooperation and mutual support in the international realm, and the only possible places were the Asian and African decolonizing new emerging states. At the end of the 1960s, Israel had established relations with thirty-three African countries.

Although Israel’s relations in Africa have evolved through various stages, notably the beginning and golden era in the late 1950s and 1960s, where Israel had established effective relations with most of the African non-member Arab League nations, and massive cooperation began in various sectors, including technical cooperation, military assistance, economic assistance, trade cooperation, agriculture, infrastructure, education, and vocational skills, and more. But after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, unfortunately, it has gradually led to the deterioration of the Israeli-African relations, where the Arab states had succeeded in their efforts to pressure the Israeli state and push anti-Israeli resolutions in the OAU and other multilateral organizations.

In those years, the Arab states had exploited Africa’s majority Muslim populations, where most of the Arab leaders, notably Muammar Qaddafi and Jamal Abdi-Nasser, had launched successive campaigns that aimed to sever the Israeli-African relations, while Qaddafi offered financial rewards to the countries that cut ties to Israel, like Gabon, Uganda, and Niger. Also, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia has led the same efforts to recruit the African Muslim majority nations to sever their ties with Israel. Even at that time, Somalia had become a member of the Arab League in 1972, a Muslim majority country, but it never spoke Arabic or has ever been considered as an Arab state or perhaps Arab people. Thirty African countries severed their diplomatic relations with Israel, except Lesotho, Swaziland, and Malawi.

Fortunately, in the early 1980s and late 80s Israeli’s diplomatic relations with Africa had been gradually restored due to several factors including; the new African’s pragmatic attitudes towards Israel like the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, the disintegration of the Soviet block and the collapse of radical African regimes, also the regime changes in South Africa and Israeli’s support of UN-sponsored sanctions against South African apartheid regime in 1987, and particularly Africa’s disengagement with radical Islamists supported by Libya, Sudan, and Iran, which has led that some African countries have considered cooperation with Israel could counter this threat as well. But at that time, restoring Israel’s relations on the continent was never like before in the 1950s and 1960s, but with a cautious involvement, particularly in the Horn of Africa.

Current Trends in the Horn of Africa

The geopolitical landscape of the Middle East and Horn of Africa has overwhelmingly changed, and its increasing tensions from various dimensions, both on state and non-state levels, in particular the Iran’s regional proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen and their growing attacks on the global shipment in the Bab El-Mandab strait, the Saudi-led coalition intervention in Yemen in the late 2010s, and the growing Islamist groups like ISIS-Somalia, ISIS-Arab Peninsula, and al-Shabaab-affiliated Al-Qaeda are what exacerbated the crisis in this volatile region that massively affects the global maritime passage, trade, and transportation.

Somaliland is located in the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance of the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which a third of the world’s maritime cargo passes, and currently faces huge devastating attacks from Houthis in Yemen, which led to the hesitation of international shipping companies to pass through the Bab al-Mandab strait and disrupted the global trade. Somaliland has 850 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Aden and could play a key role in safeguarding the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Red Sea from any terrorism, piracy, smuggling, trafficking, and other growing possible security threats in the region.

Terrorism and the proliferation of weapons in the region have sequentially led to successive destabilizing agendas worth much attention from interested parties, including Somaliland, the U.S., Gulf States, and Israel. There has been an Iranian weapon smuggling to the Houthi rebels in Yemen that exacerbated the tensions in the Horn of Africa and threatened the safe passage of international trade and transportation facilities in the Bab El-Mandab, respectively, from late 2015 up to now. The U.S. and its allies had launched a substantial operation aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean called ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG),’ which is countering the Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in late December 2023.

In addition, the increasing competition of global and regional powers in the Horn of Africa, including China, the U.S., and Turkey, is seemingly having remarkable effects in the region. Both China and the U.S. have military bases in Djibouti, while Turkey also has the largest military overseas base in Mogadishu, Somalia. The U.A.E. has also attempted to build a military base in several key areas in the region, notably in Berbera, Somaliland, the most strategic port in the Gulf, and has the longest runways in Africa. So, this region has historically been in the midst of tension and global powers’ competition grounds.

Israel, Europe, and the U.S., which have growing national security threats very far away from their borders, need to secure their global maritime passage in the Gulf of Aden and safeguard their national security interests beyond their close borders, notably Israel in the Red Sea. A couple of years ago, some media sources presented joint efforts by Israel and the U.A.E. to establish a military and intelligence base on Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden. Whether the U.A.E. acts on behalf of Israel in building a military base in Somaliland, or even for itself, Somaliland welcomes Israel and its allies to secure the Gulf of Aden and its significance in the global maritime passage and to counter any security threats in the region.

Starting Point: Somaliland-Israeli Relations

Somaliland, since its restoration of independence in 1991, seems to have been interested in the Israeli relations and establishing mutual cooperation and support for the Israeli state and its involvement in the region. It could lead to a gesture of normalizing relations of Israel with the region and successive diplomatic support for all the Horn of African states, most notably the Republic of Somaliland. Although the term ‘normalizing relations’ only concerns the Arab spectrum and its distinction from the non-Arab context, the Abraham Accords in 2020, which aimed at the Arab-Israeli normalization, were a substantial step in breaking the ice and starting a new era of mutual understanding, cooperation, and accepting Israel as a positive contributing state to the Arab world specifically and, in general, to the other Arab-sympathizing states in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

Somaliland’s interest in the Israeli relations has long been traceable to the mid-1990s, when the former president of Somaliland, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, wrote a letter to the fifth Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Egal has addressed this letter to the potential opportunities of Somaliland’s government, Cold War impacts, geopolitics in the region, and the possible threats growing from the extremist and Islamic radical groups in the region that both Somaliland and Israel are facing. At that time, it was the beginning of terrorist organizations worldwide, specifically in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. Notable terrorist groups that were hiding in Yemen later became the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; also, the Itihaad al-Islami in Somalia later became the Al-Shabaab-affiliated Al-Qaeda group in Somalia, and ISIS also emerged in several regions.

Egal seems a visionary leader according to the content of that letter and the possible security threats he addressed in it, both affecting the Israeli national security whether it’s close to its borders or far away from it. Somaliland also faces significant security threats from its surroundings in the eastern fragile regions bordering Puntland, where ISIS and al-Shabaab groups have a presence, and in the Gulf of Aden, where there are Houthi rebels in Yemen that threaten and attack the global shipping and passage in the Bab El-Mandab. All these national security threats show what Egal had warned thirty years ago.

In 2010, this letter had also been mentioned by the former spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and currently the head of International Affairs of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Yigal Palmor, who restated the letter’s significance and the Egal’s vision concerning the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the importance of Bab El-Mandab to the geopolitical landscape of the world, and in particular the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean regions. Yigal Palmor stated that both Somaliland and Israel find themselves politically isolated in the midst of a hostile region and that Israel knows better how it feels to be denied your statehood and self-determination.

Additionally, Somaliland is a Muslim majority country, but it is not a member of the Arab League, nor even an Arab country; neither does it speak Arabic as its first language. Also, Somaliland is not a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Somaliland, since its restoration of independence in 1991, while completely excluded from all the multilateral and international organizations, has a similar historical global marginalization as Israel’s formation in the late 1940s. Somaliland is willing to welcome warmly any opportunity of establishing relations with Israel and to become the first gate that Israel enters in the entire region and to foster sequential wide-range diplomatic cooperation in the continent.

Somaliland is a democratic, peaceful, and stable country in the Horn of Africa. The Muslim majority population strongly opposes any radical or extremist ideologies and has practiced their entire history of moderate schools of Islam coupled with democratic self-governance and secular Somali traditional culture. Some historical footprints showed Jewish presence in the Somaliland territory that has intermingled with other Somali minority clans, including ‘The Yibro,’ which literally translates into ‘the Hebrews,’ and still those people are a significant part of the Somaliland population.

Somaliland and Israel, since they share common strategic threats in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, could develop a strategic partnership based on various dimensions, including security, defense, military, counterterrorism, and safeguarding freedom of navigation of the Bab El-Mandab strait in the Gulf of Aden in the region. Israel could benefit from Somaliland’s strategic position in the region while countering any malign and other national security threats in order to safeguard its interests far beyond its borders, while on the other side, Somaliland could benefit from Israel’s military and defense capabilities to develop its defense and security sector and also jointly cooperate with Israel on countering the security and maritime threats in the region.

In addition, Somaliland-Israeli relations could pave the way for economic and commercial interests; subsequently, Somaliland has huge economic and trade opportunities that crucially need international investment in its oil-rich, mineral, gas, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, sea resources, and other sectors. On the other hand, Israel has a developed industrial sector and multinational companies that could access and benefit from Somaliland’s rich sectors. This could lead to a successive trade and economic cooperation so that both countries could benefit equally and will enhance their relations effectively.

Furthermore, Israel and Somaliland may share political interests in the global arena. Israel’s global diplomatic presence could open to more formal or non-formal channels to Somaliland, like states, multilateral organizations, regional bodies, and forums, while simultaneously Somaliland will strengthen its side with the Israeli global interests and jointly contribute to advocating for their mutual interests or oppose and address globally their national security threats, respectively.

Conclusion

Israel and Somaliland share a common fate, historical ground, pertinent national security challenges, the same circumstances, volatile hostile regions, democratic governance, and values, which need to be addressed effectively on both sides. Somaliland-Israel relations should have been established earlier, but unfortunately, due to misunderstandings, misperceptions, and particularly less cooperative attitudes from Somaliland’s leadership towards Israel, they’ve been postponed.

Now, it is time for setting the Israel-Somaliland partnership and putting forward a cooperative attitude, brotherhood, and initiatives for countering the growing security threats in their respective regions. Significantly starting a wide-range cooperation in all sectors of the two countries, including political and diplomatic representation, economic and trade cooperation, support and technical assistance, security and defense cooperation, intelligence information sharing, cultural interaction, infrastructure and energy cooperation, and other related sectors.

But the Somaliland-Israel relations, particularly from the side of Somaliland, need courageous, flexible political leadership seeking Somaliland interests exclusively rather than sympathizing or preceding other anti-Israeli and non-Somaliland interests.

About the AuthorAbdifatah Hassan Mohamed (Abdifatah Barawani) is a writer, political and security analyst focused in the Horn of Africa, East Africa, Middle East. He has a BA in Political Science, and currenty is pursuing MA in International Cooperation & Humanitarian Aid.Related Topics

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