What Is the Link Between Israel’s Recognition of Somaliland and a Zionist Proposal from the 1930s?

summarized by Dawan Africa – 31 December 2025

An article published by TRT World argues that Israel’s recognition of Somaliland cannot be understood as an isolated or sudden diplomatic move. Rather, it should be seen as part of a long historical pattern in Zionist thinking that has sought alternative territories and pursued demographic engineering, particularly during periods when the Zionist project in Palestine faced political constraints or obstacles.

In a move that drew widespread international condemnation, Israel became the first country to formally recognise Somaliland as an independent sovereign state. Although Somaliland unilaterally seceded from Somalia in 1991, it has not been recognised by either the United Nations or the African Union. The Somali government, backed by African consensus, maintains that Somaliland is an integral part of Somali territory.

According to the article, the recognition has intensified existing fears that Somaliland could be used as a potential destination for the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza amid the ongoing war. More critically, the move has revived an old debate about the geographical scope of Zionist ambitions and whether they extend beyond historic Palestine.

In Somalia, Israel’s decision was not viewed as a routine foreign policy act. Protests erupted in Mogadishu and other cities, where demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of national unity. These reactions, the article notes, reflect a widespread belief that Israel’s move fits into a broader historical context of land appropriation and demographic engineering.

The article draws on historical documents from the 1930s and 1940s showing that Zionist expansion beyond Palestine was openly discussed in earlier decades. Among them is a proposal associated with the so-called “Harrar Council,” which called for the settlement of European Jews in Ethiopia’s Harrar region, while using ports in British Somaliland as a strategic maritime outlet.

One key document, written in 1942 by Jewish activist Hermann Fuernberg, explicitly proposed merging the Harrar region with part of British Somaliland to establish a state for European Jews. Fuernberg argued that the local population was “not likely to raise great difficulties” and insisted that every Jew should have the right to enter this proposed state, whether by choice or compulsion.

Although such proposals remained peripheral to the official Zionist project, the article contends that they reveal an early settler-colonial mindset—one based on altering demographic realities through organised migration and imposing dominance over local populations. Many observers believe echoes of this mindset persist today.