Honenu: The Israeli Legal Group That Turns Convicted Killers Into Political Allies

An Israeli legal organization founded inside an illegal West Bank settlement has spent more than two decades defending men convicted of murdering Palestinians, and helping fund their families while they sit in prison.

The group, Honenu, was established in 2001 by Shmuel Meidad, a longtime resident of Kiryat Arba, a settlement near Hebron. According to its own website, Honenu says it has assisted "over 15,000 Jews who have acted on behalf of Am Yisrael," a self-reported figure that has not been independently audited.

Its client list reads like a roster of Israel's most notorious violence against Palestinians. Honenu lawyers represented members of the Bat Ayin Underground, convicted in 2002 of plotting to bomb a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem. They defended Yaakov Teitel, who murdered two Palestinians in 1997 and later tried to bomb Israelis he considered insufficiently religious. They represented Ami Popper, convicted of murdering seven Palestinians in 1990, and three settlers convicted in the 2014 kidnapping, beating and burning death of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

From defense table to government office

Honenu has functioned as more than a law firm. It has served as a pipeline into Israel's political and military establishment.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel's national security minister, worked as a Honenu lawyer before entering politics. His clients included a man convicted of arson at the Church of the Multiplication in the Galilee in 2017, and a settler convicted in the 2015 firebombing murder of the Dawabsheh family, a mother, father and their 18-month-old son. Hillel Roth, who managed Honenu's finances, later became civilian deputy at Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that governs the West Bank.

Money for families of convicted attackers

Beyond legal defense, Honenu has funneled financial support to the families of men convicted of violence against Palestinians, according to a report from the PLO's National Office for Land Defence and reporting cited by Haaretz. The PLO report alleges the group provides monthly salaries, bonuses for families with children, and travel costs for prison visits.

According to that reporting, Honenu raised money for Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, and supported his wife financially. Haaretz investigations referenced in the reporting say the group has also given money to the families of Popper and Teitel, to a border police officer convicted of killing a Palestinian teenager, and to the family of a lawmaker whose son was convicted of kidnapping and abusing a Palestinian child.

Honenu is funded in part through the Central Fund of Israel and Friends of Zo Artzeinu, tax-exempt channels named on its own site. Haaretz reporting cited in the record says CFI briefly suspended funding in 2016 over the group's support for families of Jewish terror suspects, before resuming.

The Sde Teiman connection

Honenu's reach extends into the military justice system. After leaked 2025 footage showed Israeli guards allegedly raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman base, sparking fierce debate inside Israel, the military's top lawyer dropped all charges against the five accused guards by March 2026. Honenu, which represented the guards, called it a legal victory.

Diaspora Alliance researcher Natasha Soffer-Roth has pointed to the double standard: Israel and its allies have long criticized the Palestine Liberation Organization for paying stipends to families of Palestinian prisoners, while a parallel Israeli system funding the families of convicted Jewish attackers draws comparatively little scrutiny.