Earlier this week, I went to share an update on social media regarding the historic visit of the Republic of Somaliland’s President, H.E. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdilahi Cirro, to the United States.

As with any diplomatic event of this caliber, I intended to include the Somaliland flag emoji to visually honor the occasion.

Instead, I was met with a frustrating reality: no Somaliland flag emoji exists.

This posed a major problem.

Using Somalia’s flag felt inaccurate, inappropriate, and disrespectful to Somaliland’s decades of peace and democratic self-governance.

This seemingly small omission points to a much larger, systemic issue: the digital erasure of Somaliland across global communications infrastructure.

Because Somaliland lacks a dedicated standard country code, digital platforms and international registries either render it invisible or subsume it under Somalia - failing to reflect its practical reality and its diplomatic recognition by a member state of the United Nations.

To address this gap, I am calling on the State of Israel and its administrative agencies to officially adopt “XS” as a user-defined ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for Somaliland.

Adopting XS would allow Somaliland to be accurately integrated across Israeli state registries, customs systems, trade portals, and digital public services. Furthermore, governmental adoption creates the vital technical precedent needed to urge Unicode and major tech platforms to implement a dedicated Somaliland flag emoji in the future.

Three Reasons Why This Matters:

1. Practical Bilateral Efficiency: Establishing a dedicated code streamlines direct trade, investment, customs clearance, and digital communications between Israeli and Somaliland enterprises.
2. Shared Understanding: As a nation that understands the challenges of self-determination, security, and international standing, Israel is uniquely positioned to lead on pragmatic digital diplomacy.
3. Technical Modernization: ISO standards explicitly reserve the XA–XZ block for user-assigned codes precisely for situations like this. Israel adopting XS follows successful international precedents (such as the European Union’s use of XK for Kosovo).

Meaningful partnership begins with institutional and digital recognition. By adopting “XS” for Somaliland, Israel can lead the way in recognizing a stable, friendly democracy in the Horn of Africa and helping bridge a meaningful digital divide.