Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Honduras
Honduras: its small Zionist-linked Jewish community, Israeli arms for the military and the Contras in the 1980s, a 2016 defence agreement, and the 2021 embassy move to Jerusalem
Honduras has a Jewish community of about 1,000.[1] In the late 1970s and 1980s "Israel" sold Honduras the first supersonic bombers in Central America and channelled arms through it to the Contras fighting the government of Nicaragua.[2] In 2016 President Juan Orlando Hernández signed a ten-year defence agreement with "Israel" worth more than $209 million,[3] and in June 2021 he opened an embassy in Jerusalem.[4] The government of Xiomara Castro recalled its ambassador in November 2023 over the war in Gaza; her successor, Nasry Asfura, restored full representation in 2026.[5][6]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says that the first Jews were crypto-Jews of the colonial era, and that a descendant of such settlers, Juan Lindo, was president of Honduras in 1847–52. Small numbers of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews arrived at the end of the 19th century, and after the First World War the government encouraged Jewish professionals from Europe to immigrate. In 1939 it severely limited the immigration of Jews, Roma and other foreigners, but President Tiburcio Carías Andino later ordered consuls to grant asylum visas to young refugees related to families in Honduras. In the 1970s and early 1980s a large group of Israelis came to work in engineering, agriculture and security, and Hondurans who had spent time in "Israel" founded the Honduras Israel Cultural Institute. The first synagogue in Tegucigalpa, built in 1997, was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and rebuilt in 2002. Ricardo Maduro, president in 2002–06, was Jewish.[1]
Organisations
- Comunidad Hebrea de Tegucigalpa: the representative body and WJC affiliate. It runs a Sunday school and Jewish studies, and the community is associated with the Federation of Zionist Latin American Students. There are three synagogues: Shevet Ajim in Tegucigalpa, and Maguen David and Derech Chaim in San Pedro Sula.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Linked to the Zionist movement: the WJC says WIZO, the Jewish Agency, which organises aliyah, and the Maccabi youth movement have all begun working in Honduras in the last 25 years, and that several Israeli organisations have affiliated with the community.[1]
- Honduras Israel Cultural Institute: founded in the 1970s or early 1980s by Hondurans who had lived in "Israel".[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Pro-Israeli by origin; no further information.
How far is it Zionist? Linked to the Zionist movement through WIZO, the Jewish Agency, Maccabi and the Federation of Zionist Latin American Students.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Honduras. The WJC says there is no full-time Chabad presence, though Chabad's Roving Rabbis programme visits.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy and the Jerusalem embassy
- The WJC says Honduras was one of the first countries to recognise "Israel", in 1948;[1] the Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list dates recognition to January 1950 and records no resident Israeli embassy, with Honduras covered from Guatemala.[7] El País says Honduras opened its first embassy in "Israel" in 1985.[8]
- The WJC says Hernández was the first graduate of MASHAV, the Israeli foreign ministry's development agency, to become a head of state. In January 2020 his government designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.[1]
- Honduras opened an office in Jerusalem in September 2019, which it treated as an extension of its embassy.[1] On 24 June 2021 Hernández inaugurated the embassy in Jerusalem, the fourth country to do so after the United States, Guatemala and Kosovo. He tweeted: "¡Oficialmente inaugurada Embajada de Honduras en Jerusalén, capital eterna de Israel!" ("Embassy of Honduras in Jerusalem, eternal capital of Israel, officially inaugurated!"), recalled that he had first visited "Israel" 30 years before at MASHAV's invitation, and said "Israel" had given Honduras "asistencia técnica en materia de seguridad" ("technical assistance on security"). He also said that "hay un pueblo cristiano en Honduras y para nosotros esta decisión espiritualmente es muy importante" ("there is a Christian people in Honduras, and for us this decision is spiritually very important").[4][9]
- In November 2023 the Castro government recalled its ambassador over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.[5][6] The WJC describes this as a break in relations and the withdrawal of the embassy,[1] but Estrategia y Negocios says relations were never formally interrupted and the embassy remained in Jerusalem without an ambassador.[6]
- Asfura, the son of Palestinian emigrants,[10] visited "Israel" as president-elect in January 2026 and met the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, Benjamin Netanyahu and Gideon Sa'ar.[6] Minutes after his inauguration on 27 January 2026, his first official act was to receive the credentials of the Israeli ambassador, Nadav Goren.[11] On 3 August 2026 the new Honduran ambassador, José Luis Núñez Bennett, presented his credentials to Herzog in Jerusalem.[8]
Arms, military and police
- Writing in Middle East Report in 1986, Milton Jamail and Margo Gutierrez said "Israel" sold Honduras 12 refurbished Dassault Super Mystère fighters in January 1977, giving it "the first supersonic bombers in Central America", without telling the US State Department that they had US-made engines. Over the 1970s Honduras also bought Arava transports, a Westwind jet, Galil rifles, Uzi submachine guns, RBY armoured cars, mortars and patrol boats. The Israeli defence minister, Ariel Sharon, visited Tegucigalpa in December 1982; the Christian Science Monitor reported that he signed an agreement to supply Kfir fighters, tanks, training and Galil rifles.[2]
- They wrote that in July 1983 "Israel" agreed, at US request, to send weapons captured from the PLO to Honduras for the Contras, and that in May 1984 Time reported that "Israel funnels arms to the contras through the Honduran army".[2]
- SIPRI records 16 second-hand Super Mystère fighters (ten ordered in 1976 and six in 1977), 100 Shafrir-2 air-to-air missiles, 16 RBY-1 armoured personnel carriers, 60 mortars and two Arava transports ordered in 1976–77; an EL/M-2288 air-search radar delivered in 2014 as part of a $25 million deal; and an OPV-62 patrol vessel, ordered in 2016 for $54 million and delivered in 2019.[12] In early 2016 Israeli experts installed the third of a set of radars bought from IAI's ELTA Systems to detect drug flights.[13]
- On 8 December 2016, in the Israeli prime minister's office in Jerusalem, the two governments signed an implementation agreement under a framework agreement ratified by the Honduran Congress on 2 November 2016, to refurbish F-5 and A-37 aircraft and the helicopter fleet, build an OPV vessel, supply army communications and three unmanned surveillance systems with six drones, and strengthen the Dirección Nacional de Investigación e Inteligencia.[14] Israel Defense reported a G2G deal of $300 million over ten years, concluded by SIBAT, the Israeli defence ministry's export directorate, including vessels from Israel Shipyards and a national cyber emergency response team from Israel Aerospace Industries.[15] El Heraldo put the cost at 5,228 million lempiras (more than $209 million), payable until 2026; by 2022 Honduras had paid 3,276 million lempiras, but only the ship, drones and a command project had been delivered, and the F-5 and A-37 upgrades had failed for lack of parts and US authorisation.[3]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Honduras separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $0.1 million from Honduras (2024: $0.0 million) and exported goods worth $5.9 million to it (2024: $11.6 million).[16]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Honduras separately; it is included under "other countries".[17]
Political interference
UN voting
Honduras did not vote on the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution in September 2025.[18]
Jeffrey Epstein
- In March 2004 Ted Waitt forwarded a recommendation for a dolphin resort on Roatán, in the Bay Islands, to a correspondent signing as "G. Max" and "Gx", who replied: "Near Honduras - I smell guerillas??? Terrorists - my type of place?"[19]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Guatemala
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Nicaragua
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to El Salvador
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 World Jewish Congress, Community in Honduras worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Milton Jamail and Margo Gutierrez, Israel in Central America Middle East Report (MERIP), May 1986 (critical).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Buque, drones y comando, lo único cumplido del convenio con Israel El Heraldo, 9 May 2022.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Honduras inaugura embajada en Jerusalén La Prensa (Honduras), 24 June 2021.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Belize joins diplomatic backlash against Israel over Gaza bombardment Al Jazeera, 15 November 2023.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Honduras vuelve a Israel: giro diplomático de Asfura que mira también hacia Washington Revista Estrategia y Negocios, 4 August 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Honduras e Israel estrechan vínculos con la acreditación de su nuevo embajador El País (Honduras), 3 August 2026.
- ↑ Inauguran oficialmente la embajada de Honduras en Jerusalén El Heraldo, 24 June 2021.
- ↑ Israel anuncia que Honduras reactivará su sede diplomática tras conversación con Nasry Asfura La Prensa (Honduras), 3 August 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The new president of Honduras received the credentials of Israeli Ambassador Nadav Goren embassies.gov.il, January 2026 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Honduras instala el tercer radar adquirido a IAI ELTA Systems Infodefensa, 16 February 2016.
- ↑ Secretaría de Defensa Nacional (Honduras), Seguridad y Defensa: Israel y Honduras suscriben acuerdo para potenciar las Fuerzas Armadas sedena.gob.hn, December 2016 (Honduran government-side).
- ↑ Israel, Honduras Sign $300 Million Framework Agreement Israel Defense, 23 March 2017.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Email thread between Ted Waitt and "G. Max", "Re: Another Dolphin Place fyI", 29 March 2004, EFTA00578996, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.