There was one example of Hondurans protesting Israeli crimes against Palestinians during the Gaza war after the Hamas attack and Israeli stand down operation of October 7. On October 23, 2023, dozens of Honduran Palestinians demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Since then, the long-established and influential Arab Palestinian community has been mostly silent about the plight of their Palestinian relatives amid Israel’s escalating atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank.
There is certainly a disconnect as the 300,000 members of Honduras’ Christian Palestinian community are the third and fourth generations to be born outside of Palestine. Their ancestors began arriving in Honduras from Palestine in the 1890s, and today their connection to and knowledge of Palestine and Israel is mostly superficial.
Most Honduran Palestinians don’t know the full scale or nature of the barbarism inflicted on their compatriots who stayed behind and continue to face Israeli oppression, violence, discrimination and now genocide. A Honduran Palestinian businessman told me that many in his community are afraid of being accused of anti-Semitism and facing potential consequences. Simply acknowledging that a systematic genocide may be occurring in Gaza is viewed by some as anti-Semitic.
It is hard not to notice. Since October 2023, Israeli military actions have resulted in the deaths of many Christian civilians in Gaza who have nothing to do with Hamas. In October 2023 Israeli military bombed a Christian orthodox church and murdered 18 Christians. In December, 2023 Israeli snipers executed two Palestinian women on Gaza Holy Family Catholic church property. In July 2025 Israeli soldiers fired a tank shell at a cross of the same church killing three, and wounding a catholic priest. While this all fell on death ears in Honduras, it does seem that the Israelis don’t like Christians very much.
One person who spoke with concern about the plight of Palestinians was president Xiomara Castro. In November 2023, the Honduran government recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations due to escalating massacres of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. President Castro described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide during a U.N. speech in September 2024.
Still, words have not turned into actions. Honduras is nowhere near recognizing Palestine as an independent state or moving its embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv. In fact, Honduras remains firmly in the pro-Zionist camp as it continues to support Israel’s military by purchasing 15 Black Mamba military vehicles.
Pro-Zionist sentiment is strong in Honduras. Israeli flags are flown throughout the country. Hondurans increasingly wear the Star of David around their necks, and taxi drivers display the Israeli emblem on their vehicles.
Honduran roots of Zionism and judeophilia run deep, well over a century. The country now counts three of its presidents to be Jewish: Juan Lindo, Ricardo Maduro and Juan Orlando Hernández.
In fact, you could argue that there was a fourth Jewish president of Honduras who ruled the country from 1911 well into the 1950s. Samuel Zemurray, the Banana King, was responsible for the 1911 Honduran presidential coup that secured land and concessions for his United Fruit banana company. American mercenaries hired by Zemurray deposed President Miguel Dávila and made Honduras his “banana republic.” Zemurray installed his puppet, Manuel Bonilla, as president and received 20,000 acres of land in return.
After President Bonilla’s death in 1913, Zemurray continued to be a virtual puppet master of several other Honduran presidents. In 1947, the World Zionist Organization tasked Zemurray with delivering Honduras’ U.N. vote in support of the creation of the state of Israel. Reportedly, in a personal phone call, Zemurray tried to bribe then-Honduran President Tiburcio Carías Andino. Because of pressure from the Honduran Palestinian community, Honduras abstained from voting for Israel.
Since then and with plenty of CIA help, Christian Zionism has made many inroads in Honduras. CIA fronts such as World Vision, USAID and Protestant Church World Service for many decades worked to undermine the cohesiveness of Honduras society. Since 1950s CIA, what could be considered an Israeli captured agency, promoted establishing and expansion of Protestant churches in Latin America. The excuse given was that Protestants were more anti communist and a good alternative to Liberation Theology movement preached in many Catholic parishes.
Israel’s investment in JOH obviously paid off.
The percentage of Catholics in the country fell from 97% in the 1960s to 47% today. Protestant denominations undermined the Catholic cohesion of Honduran society. Religiously divided Honduras is much easier to manipulate, with one denomination pitted against another.
Sixty years later, those Catholic-to-Protestant converts have not only become Zionists, they are actually converting to Judaism. According to El Heraldo, 37 families converted to Judaism and, in 2022, established Honduras’ first synagogue.
The San Pedro Sula Mishkan Shlomo synagogue members advertise their plans to judaise and convert thousands of Hondurans. The plan is for the expanded synagogue to be a six story tall, shaped like a Star of David building, and be able to accommodate 456 people. This would make it the biggest synagogue in Latin America.
Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández was key in expansion of judeophilia and Zionism in Honduras. Just in terms of economy, according School of the Americas, between 2013 and 2019 Honduras purchased $342 million in military and surveillance equipment from Israel. Basically Honduras has been supporting Israel to the tune of around $5 million a month for that period.
Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández was key in expansion of judeophilia and Zionism in Honduras. Just in terms of economy, according School of the Americas, between 2013 and 2019 Honduras purchased $342 million in military and surveillance equipment from Israel. Basically Honduras has been supporting Israel to the tune of around $5 million a month for that period.
Road to conversion of Juan Orlando Hernández begun in early 1990s when he completed a one year Mashav leaders course in Israel. Israel’s investment in JOH obviously paid off as he learned Hebrew, moved Honduras’ embassy to Jerusalem in 2021 converted to Judaism with his entire family in 2021. The last one right before going to a US jail for 45 years convicted of decade’s long drug and arms smuggling operation.
Honduras is likely getting set up for a rough ride. Israel funded military dictatorships where even CIA would not venture. Israel trained and supplied arms to many bad actors that destabilized the region: genocidal regime in Guatemala in 1980s, Colombian drug smuggling death squads, Los Zetas drug lord Heriberto Lazcano. “Israel has given its soldiers practical training in the art of oppression and in methods of collective punishment.
Some of those officers choose to make use of their knowledge in the service of dictators,” said Israeli general Mattityahu Peled.
Honduras will likely become an increasingly polarized and violent society.
There is also a growing Israeli pressure on the Honduran public by co-opting its anti Gaza genocide sentiment into nebulous movements. The normally restrained Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained that Israeli Ambassador Nadav Goren meddled in internal Honduran affairs by meeting with Protestant church leaders preparing for the August 16 March for Peace and Democracy. “We express to the Honduran people our deep discomfort at their participation in said public event. The involvement of a diplomat not only ignores his limitations,” stated the Honduran ministry.
There are plenty of other players seeping discord. Until its recent defunding by the Trump administration, San Pedro Sula was also home to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). The worldwide HIAS organization does not assist Palestinians, Arabs or Christians in moving to Israel, but used U.S. tax dollars to help move undocumented migrants through Honduras to the United States.
For decades, certain interest groups have promoted racial resentment —particularly among Black communities— while fostering a sense of guilt among white, European and Christian populations. In Honduras, this strategy is reflected in the 23-year-old movement known as the Fraternal Organization of Honduran Blacks (OFRANEH), which has received funding from organizations such as American Jewish World Service and the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros. These groups have been involved in fermenting revolutions, protests and underhanded political activism around the world.
Just as with organizations such as Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA — which was recently designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization — OFRANEH fosters division, racial tension, grievances and expectations of compensation in the historically well-integrated Garifuna community.
Honduras, in the second quarter of the 21st century, will likely become an increasingly polarized and violent society. Powerful interest groups are working hard to implement this, and Roatan is increasingly a party to those tensions. In September 2025, OFRANEH conducted demonstrations in Cayos Cochinos, and in March 2025, there were protests in Diamond Rock. Tensions on Roatan are just starting to heat up.
