Articles about Israeli recognition of Somaliland
A number of articles from Middle East Monitor. They state that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognised Somaliland without appropriate authority and that it is part of a deal the intention of which is to forcibly remove Palestinians to Somaliland.
Israeli prime minister under fire over recognition of Somaliland, Gaza talks with Trump
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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday over Israel’s recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland and his talks with US President Donald Trump without a clear plan for Gaza, Anadolu reports.
Netanyahu announced Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an independent state on Friday, a move Lapid said did not receive approval from either the government or the security cabinet.
“Israel announced it was the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state,” Lapid said in a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as cited in a video published by the Knesset Channel.
“This was not a decision of the government or the security cabinet. It was a decision of the prime minister’s office,” he added.
Lapid said several countries, including states in the region, condemned the recognition, adding that the Israeli move reflected the absence of a coherent foreign policy.
Israel became the world’s first country to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state, drawing condemnation from Türkiye, a close ally of Somalia, and countries in Africa and the Middle East, among others.
READ: Saudi royal source: Israel’s recognition of Somaliland distances it from normalisation
Global backlash grows over Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with many countries condemning the move as a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability.
Somaliland, which has lacked official recognition since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, operates as a de facto independent administrative, political, and security entity, with the central government struggling to assert control over the region and its leadership unable to secure international recognition of independence.
Lapid also criticized Netanyahu for travelling to meet Trump on Monday night without presenting an Israeli vision for Gaza.
“When an Israeli prime minister meets a US president, we wish him success,” he said. “But Netanyahu is arriving without a clear vision for Gaza. When you don’t have a vision, others decide for you.”
Lapid said that if Israel does not present a plan for Gaza, other actors, including the US and Hamas, will shape the outcome.
Netanyahu arrived in Florida late Sunday for a visit expected to last five days. The trip began with a preparatory meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the public broadcaster KAN.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Trump on Monday night to discuss several issues, including Iran and the Gaza ceasefire agreement, with talks expected to focus on moving to a second phase of the deal.
The second phase includes forming a temporary technocratic committee to administer Gaza, reconstruction efforts, the creation of a peace council, the establishment of an international force, additional Israeli military withdrawals, and Hamas’ disarmament.
The ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, halting two years of Israeli war that has killed over 71,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 171,200 others since October 2023.
READ: Israeli prime minister departs for US to meet Trump
Somalia’s president says Somaliland agreed to resettle Palestinians, host Israeli base for recognition
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Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the breakaway region of Somaliland has agreed to resettle Palestinians and host an Israeli military base in return for recognition by Israel, citing intelligence reports.
Tel Aviv’s recognition of Somaliland was “very unexpected and strange,” Mohamud told the Qatari news network Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview, adding that it came “out of nowhere” as Israel became the first since 1991 to recognize the region as an independent state.
Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, has operated as a de facto self-governing region without international recognition, as the central government in Mogadishu has failed to reassert control.
Mogadishu rejects Somaliland’s independence claim, considers the region part of Somalia, and views any direct engagement with it as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
OPINION: The recognition of Somaliland as an Israeli geopolitical weapon
“We’ve been trying to reunite the country in a peaceful manner,” Mohamud said.
He said Somaliland also accepted joining the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco to normalize their relations.
Israel is seeking to control strategically important waterways such as the Red Sea, the Gulf, and the Gulf of Aden, and its recognition of Somaliland merely normalizes an existing covert presence there, the Somali president said, citing intelligence reports.
He said Israel is not in the region for peace and seeks to forcibly displace Palestinians to Somalia.
Global backlash is growing over Tel Aviv’s recognition of Somaliland, with many countries condemning the move as a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability.
On Monday, countries at the UN Security Council raised concerns at an emergency meeting that the move appears aimed at relocating Palestinians from Gaza.
Nearly all council members condemned Israel’s recognition, while the US abstained from condemnation, saying its stance on the breakaway region, however, had not changed.
Malaysian premier slams Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, links it with ‘forced transfer of Palestinians’
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday rejected Israel’s recognition of the breakaway Somali territory of Somaliland, while linking the move with the alleged “forced transfer of Palestinians”, Anadolu agency reported.
“Such actions violate international law and humanitarian principles, and would only perpetuate injustice rather than contribute to peace,” he said during a news conference, according to the Malaysian daily The New Straits Times.
Anwar said that any attempt to use the territory “for the forced transfer of Palestinians is totally and wholly unacceptable.”
The remarks come as the Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday rejected Israeli plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza, including to Somaliland, following Tel Aviv’s recognition of the breakaway region.
Anwar, while noting the recent discussions held in Florida for the next phase of the peace process, warned that any return to large-scale violence would exact an “intolerable cost” on civilians and further weaken fragile prospects for peace.
READ: Israeli prime minister under fire over recognition of Somaliland, Gaza talks with Trump
“Israel must be held accountable for its actions and obligations under international law,” he added.
Israel became the world’s first country to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state on Friday.
Global backlash grew over Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with many countries condemning the move as a violation of international law and a threat to regional stability.
On Friday, Somalia reiterated its absolute and non-negotiable commitment to its sovereignty, national unity, and territorial integrity following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
Somaliland, which has lacked official recognition since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, operates as a de facto independent administrative, political, and security entity, with the central government struggling to assert control over the region and its leadership unable to secure international recognition of independence.
READ: Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland illegitimate, unacceptable: Turkish President Erdogan
Germany: Imprisoned ‘Palestine Action’ activists face harassment
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Five activists who targeted Israel’s arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in Germany are being held in harsh and legally questionable conditions. Charged under a statute increasingly used to criminalize political dissent, the ‘Ulm Five’ face solitary confinement, surveillance, and prolonged detention without bail – highlighting how Germany’s proclaimed ‘reason of state’ translates into repression of Palestine solidarity at home.
For years, Palestine activists in Germany have looked to Britain with a sense of astonishment. The state that promised Palestine to Zionist settler colonialism in the 1917 Balfour Declaration is scarcely less pro-Israel than the Federal Republic of Germany, with its so-called Staatsräson (‘reason of state‘) that proclaims unconditional solidarity with Israel – albeit without ever having been codified into law. And yet, solidarity in Britain appears – at least from this vantage point – to be more vibrant, broader, and above all more effective.
This perception is partly shaped by the mass demonstrations that repeatedly brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London between October 2023 and October 2025. In Germany, by contrast – despite its many large cities but lack of true megacities – numerous decentralized actions have taken place every week since the start of the Gaza genocide. However, truly large demonstrations breaking the 50,000 or even 100,000 mark did not occur until last summer.
A model: ‘Palestine Action’
For many, this positive view of the British Palestine solidarity movement has also been decisively shaped by the group Palestine Action (PA), which succeeded in combining ‘direct action with media work and political struggle, including legal battles in court. Quite a few activists in Germany felt – and continue to feel – that the time had come to strike directly at the infrastructure of the genocide industry here as well.
That moment arrived only this fall. On September 8, five activists entered a factory belonging to the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the southern German city of Ulm. They filmed themselves, unmasked, damaging equipment and holding documents up to the camera. They then allowed themselves to be arrested without resistance.
READ: UN experts urge UK to protect lives of pro-Palestine hunger strikers
‘Terrorists‘ there, ‘criminals‘ here
While in Britain thousands have taken to the streets since PA was designated a ‘terrorist organisation this summer – despite the risk of long prison sentences – the situation surrounding the so-called ‘Ulm Five‘ has so far remained strikingly quiet. The reasons are obvious: the group had no years-long history of actions through which to establish itself; the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany remains highly fragmented; even many activists only marginally noticed the action. Finally, the repression faced by the ‘Ulm Five’ – at least so far – has not reached the same extreme levels seen in Britain.
Unlike their British counterparts, the German authorities don’t accuse the activists of belonging to a ‘terrorist organisation a charge made possible by Section 129a of the Criminal Code, introduced in 1976. Instead, they are accused of forming a ‘criminal organisation‘ under Section 129, which carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison. This alleged offense would be added to the charges of property damage already leveled against them.
Section 129, originally intended to combat organized crime, is increasingly being deployed against political groups. Most recently, it has been used against young climate activists and militant anti-fascists. In practice, this amounts to a kind of ‘light‘ version of a terrorist designation – while simultaneously denying the political nature of the accused and treating them as ordinary criminals.
Harassment and struggle behind bars
The treatment of the imprisoned activists is similarly harsh and legally questionable, according to a report by seven lawyers representing the five. As in Britain, they have been denied release on bail. The lawyers also describe harassment immediately following the arrests: the activists were forced to undress and wait in their cells wearing only underwear – women without brassieres included. For 30 hours they received almost no food, and in one case medically prescribed medication was withheld for 20 hours. Interrogations were conducted in the absence of legal counsel.
The harassment has continued. Several prisoners are reportedly held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. One individual was denied access to their lawyer for two weeks; in another case, contact with family was blocked for an entire month. Meetings with attorneys remain severely restricted, and family visits are in some cases limited to one hour per month. All communication is fully monitored, and letters are arbitrarily withheld.
While eight PA activists in Britain have been on hunger strike since early November to protest their conditions of detention – and are now said to be in life-threatening condition – the imprisoned ‘Ulm Five’ have not yet resorted to this drastic measure. But neither in Britain nor in Germany would they be the first political prisoners to turn their bodies into weapons against repression. And as the history of the Irish liberation struggle and West Germany’s urban guerrilla movements makes clear, those in power – there as here – have shown little hesitation in allowing prisoners to die.
OPINION: German politicians and police on lobby trips to Israel
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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235,000 Palestinians affected by ‘man-made’ consequences of winter in Gaza: UNRWA chief
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At least 235,000 people have been affected by a “man-made” crisis in Gaza after low-pressure weather systems hit the war-ravaged enclave, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Monday, Anadolu reports.
“Months of war and displacement forced people in Gaza to live amid collapsing ruins in makeshift shelters or in flimsy tents,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on the US social media company X.
“While Storm Byron that struck Gaza on December 10 was a natural hazard, its consequences are man-made,” Lazzarini stressed.
Heavy rains and strong winds triggered by low-pressure weather systems caused the collapse of 17 buildings and the full or partial damage of more than 42,000 tents or makeshift shelters and affected at least 235,000 people between Dec. 10 and 17, Lazzarini said, citing data by the Shelter Cluster in Gaza.
READ: Harsh winter in Gaza deepens suffering after more than 2 years of Israeli war: UN agency
A new wave of weather depression has been battering Gaza since the weekend, causing the death of two people and the uprooting of tens of thousands of tents, according to civil defense.
Weather conditions pose great danger to displaced Palestinians who are living in worn-out tents or severely damaged high-risk buildings, which have been under repeated Israeli strikes since October 2023.
The Israeli army has killed more than 71,200 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,200 others since October 2023 in Gaza in a brutal assault that also left the enclave in ruins.
Despite a ceasefire that took effect in Gaza on Oct. 10, Israel still closes the territory’s crossings and prevents the entry of mobile homes and reconstruction materials, worsening the plight of nearly 2.4 million people in the enclave.
READ: Gaza health official says miscarriages surge as births fall by 40%
Ben Gvir’s party pushes Israeli bill targeting mosque calls to prayer
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Israel’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by the extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, is continuing to push a new bill that targets the Islamic call to prayer in mosques by imposing strict restrictions and tough enforcement measures.
The party described the proposal as a “dramatic change” in how the authorities deal with what it called “noise coming from mosques”.
In a statement, Ben Gvir said: “The unreasonable noise of the muezzin harms quality of life.”
MK Zvika Fogel said the issue “is not religious but health-related”, calling for firm and clear legislation to address what he described as “systematic legal violations”.
Fogel, who chairs the Knesset’s National Security Committee, submitted the proposal. It is based on the principle of a “general ban with a special permit”, meaning loudspeakers would not be allowed in any mosque unless an official permit is granted. The permit would take into account factors such as volume levels, the mosque’s location, and how close it is to residential areas.
READ: Ben-Gvir flees after being pelted with stones in Palestinian village in Negev
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