Afrasianet -  Dr. Hisham Okal -  It is not new for Israel to look for an alternative homeland for the Palestinians, nor is it new for the world to treat this idea as a passing  "slip of the tongue." The only new thing is the maps that change while the same idea remains:

The Palestinian is superfluous... Let us look for a distant place for him.

The latest chapter of this black political comedy came with the announcement by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu of its unilateral recognition of the so-called "Republic of Somaliland", a move presented in the media as a sovereign diplomatic affair, but in depth it is only a new episode in the series of the search for a geographical landfill for the Palestinians.

This admission is not innocent but comes in the context of desperate attempts to displace Palestinians. This is an accurate description, albeit in polite diplomatic language, which is not befitting the amount of political insolence at hand.

Displacement: An old idea with new masks

Who thinks that talk about the displacement of Palestinians to Somalia is the result of the Gaza war?

The latter reads history upside down.

The idea of "demographic discharge" has accompanied the Zionist project since its inception:

Once in Uganda at the turn of the twentieth century.

Once to Sinai under the name of development projects.

Once to Jordan as the "alternative homeland".

Once to Latin America via soft localization plans.

And once to the neighboring Arab countries under humanitarian pretexts.

The idea hasn't changed, only the maps change according to the balance of power.

Today, at the height of the genocidal war on Gaza, Israel is returning to its old staircase and emerging from it a distant, fragile map of Africa, already suffering from sovereign crises and telling the world: "We have found the solution."

Why now? And why Somaliland?

The most important question is not: Why does Israel recognize Somaliland?

Bell: Why now, specifically?

The answer is simple for those who read the moment well:

A long war without a clear victory.

It failed to break the will of the Palestinian people .

Mounting international pressure.

An unprecedented moral dilemma.

At such moments, countries resort to geopolitical escape. Israel is good at that. Recognize an internationally recognized entity, to earn:

A new negotiation paper.

A foothold in the Horn of Africa 

Most importantly, it opened an imaginary window to the idea of displacement without officially announcing it.

 For Israel, "Somaliland" itself is a legal vacuum that can be employed, an entity seeking recognition, and Israel is looking for a function for such recognition.

Deadly irony

The irony is that Israel, which to this day refuses to recognize the internationally recognized State of Palestine, has suddenly decided to become the protector of the right to self-determination. But only when this right is thousands of kilometers away from Palestine.

It's a modern version of the old colonial mentality:

We decide as you move.

But history – and unfortunately for Israel – is not a blank page: all previous displacement projects have fallen not because they are not "practical,"  but because they collide with one fact:

The Palestinian is not a geographical problem... It is a political and moral issue.

A sharp angle asks, "?

Israeli recognition of Somaliland is not a support for independence but an investment in chaos.

It is not a diplomatic move, but a veiled threat message.

Not in search of a solution, but rather an escape from entitlement: the recognition of the Palestinians' right to their land.

From Uganda to Somalia and from Latin America to Sinai, all temporary maps will remain a failure because there is one people who refuses to be turned into a political cargo, issued in times of crisis.

And here, precisely all the "dead corners" fail in the calculations of power... Palestine remains..!

– Professor of Crisis Management and International Relations