By Abdikarim Haji Abdi Buh

In a grim paradox, Somali religious leaders are going around the country asking one of the world’s most impoverished and war-torn populations to donate money to Palestine—a cause undeniably just, but currently manipulated by those who fail to see the suffering in their own backyard.

In Somalia, over 4 million people are displaced, nearly half the population lives in dire poverty, and Western aid is the only thing preventing mass famine. The government functions on international handouts, with 70% of its budget funded by foreign donors. For the past 17 years, Somalia has relied on African Union troops—themselves largely bankrolled by the United States and the European Union—to hold back Al-Shabaab militants from overtaking the state.

And yet, while Somalis stand in food lines and live under the threat of bombs and jihadist executions, they are being asked to contribute to a crisis that, although tragic, is being fueled—not prevented—by the very Western countries keeping Somalia afloat.

“The people of Gaza are being slaughtered, and it’s heartbreaking,” says Sahro Muse, a humanitarian worker in Puntland. “But Somalia is itself a humanitarian graveyard. Why are our sheikhs not raising funds for the orphans of Baidoa? For the widows of Beledweyne?”

This moral dissonance strikes a deep nerve. While Somalia is urged to dig into its empty pockets, the same countries that fund Somalia’s survival—the United States, Germany, Britain, and France—are actively aiding Israel’s war machine. Over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed. The entire city of Gaza has been flattened—hospitals bombed, refugee camps incinerated, and aid convoys deliberately blocked.

“We are witnessing live genocide on television, funded and armed by Western democracies,” says Abdirahman Hussein, a political commentator in Nairobi. “Israel bombs a hospital, the West blames Hamas. Israel kills a journalist, and they talk about ‘human shields’. They say they stand for human rights, but what they really stand for is impunity.”

Indeed, the United States has not only supplied billions in military aid to Israel but also vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire. President Biden, despite calling the deaths “tragic,” has ensured that Israel faces no meaningful consequences. Meanwhile, aid to Gaza is being deliberately obstructed, creating artificial famine in one of the most densely populated areas on Earth.

“Palestinian children are now dying from hunger—not just bombs,” says Dr. Fadumo Ibrahim, a Somali doctor who once worked with MSF. “And that hunger is man-made. It is designed by powerful states to punish an entire population. If a Somali warlord did this, he would be at The Hague. But when Israel does it, they call it ‘self-defense’.”

Worse still, in the occupied West Bank, where there is no war, Israeli settlers—backed by soldiers and protected by Western silence—are seizing Palestinian land with impunity. Entire villages are being erased, and armed settlers are forcing families off their ancestral land. It is a slow, methodical ethnic cleansing, done in the shadow of Gaza’s horror and with the tacit approval of the West.

“What’s happening in Palestine is not just war—it is a settler colonial project,” says Professor Mohamed Salah of Mogadishu University. “The West spent 50 years teaching us about apartheid in South Africa. Now they are financing apartheid in Palestine.”

So why is Somalia—a collapsed state, a humanitarian disaster, and a victim of terrorism, famine, and state failure—expected to sacrifice for Palestine when the very Arab nations surrounding Gaza do almost nothing?

Egypt, which borders Gaza, has closed the Rafah crossing, even blocking aid trucks. Jordan, instead of defending Palestinians, has intercepted Iranian drones—to protect Israel. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, with trillions in oil wealth, issue platitudes but avoid any real confrontation with Tel Aviv or Washington.

“If Palestine were in Africa, this genocide would not have lasted a week,” says Yusuf Gedi, a Somali activist. “The African Union would have intervened, sanctions would have been imposed, and the people would have fought. But in the Arab world, they watch Gaza burn while investing in Israeli tech companies.”

Back in Somalia, the absurdity deepens. In Garowe, Kismayo, and even parts of Mogadishu, where the threat of Al-Shabaab lingers daily, poor civilians are guilt-tripped by religious leaders to contribute to a distant war that wealthy oil monarchies ignore.

“Let the Gulf states fund Palestine. Let Egypt open its borders. Let Jordan take up arms,” says a sheikh in Bosaso who declined to be named. “Then we will know this is real solidarity—not a staged theatre where the poor of the world are exploited for emotional currency.”

The truth is, Somalis care about Palestine, and deeply. But they are also tired of being told to save others while no one is saving them. They are tired of Western lectures about morality, from countries that fund war crimes, sabotage humanitarian efforts, and then turn around and ask the poor to show compassion.

In a just world, the people of Gaza would live in peace, and so would the people of Somalia. In a just world, those who create the bombs would not ask the victims of famine to pay for their cleanup. In a just world, charity would begin at home, and so would justice.

Until then, asking Somalia to support Palestine is not an act of unity. It is an act of cruelty—one that underscores how disconnected our global moral compass has become.

Abdikarim Haji Abdi Buh 
Email: abdikarimbuh@yahoo.com