Right-wing Israeli NGO 'provides funds' to convicted Jewish extremists

Right-wing Israeli NGO 'provides funds' to convicted Jewish extremists
Among those allegedly receiving funds from settlement-based Honenu is the ringleader of a gang which burned Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir alive in 2014.
2 min read
28 April, 2017
Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, was sentenced for killing 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir [Getty]
An Israeli NGO has provided thousands of dollars in grants to convicted Jewish extremists and murderers, including the ringleader responsible for burning a Palestinian teenager alive in 2014. 

Israel's Channel 10 news obtained internal documents from Israeli NGO Honenu, which showed that the organisation had provided money to prominent Jewish extremists, Haaretz reported.

On the list was Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014.

The teenager was kidnapped, beaten, and burned alive in a case which sparked international outrage. Another man who Honenu allegedly gave money to was Meir Ettinger.

The Jewish settler, grandson of US-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, Israel's most notorious Jewish extremist, was arrested in 2015 following a deadly arson attack on a Palestinian West Bank home. He was released 10 months later.

Two parents and an 18-month-old boy from the Dawabsheh family were killed in the attack.

The NGO, which describes itself as a legal aid organisation, has provided funds to numerous other right-wing extremists, according to Haaretz.

It responded to the allegations by saying it worked within the "requirements of the law," Haaretz reported. 

"We didn't see Channel 10 reporters digging through the documents of organisations hostile to Israel," the group added.

In 2015, Israeli NGO Peace Now found that the Israeli government was providing a special tax status to groups providing money to those convicted of political violence.

Honenu, based in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron, was deemed eligible for the special status.