Rabbi Amichai Gordon, a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion, accused the Honenu legal organization of supporting criminals and murderers.
"Ayala Hasson's public statement that Mansour Abbas tried to fund a lawyer for the Fogel family's heinous killer, (a publication that Abbas himself denied) is shocking and should bother us greatly. The killers of innocent people should not be supported," Rabbi Gordin, a Rabbi at Yeshivat Har Eztion, said.
"But in order for us to come to discussions on murderer support, we need to come with clean hands. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Recently, important rabbis have supported Religious Zionism together with political public leaders in the Honenu organization, which helps many innocent Jewish detainees and has done many good things," continues Rabbi Gordin.
"Unfortunately, the Honenu organization is not content with supporting the innocent, and on its website it is proud and I quote word for word from their website 'has given legal assistance to the detainees in the Bat Ayin underground case, in which several Jews were accused of trying to harm Arabs as an act of revenge on acts of terrorism that were happening during this time," he said.
"The association's laundered description of "several Jews accused of trying to harm Arabs" hides behind a monstrous incident in which two religious Jews were accused of placing a burning cart near an Arab girls' school. Their last-minute arrest prevented the massacre of dozens of innocent Arab girls," he continues.
He goes on: "The Honenu organization is also proud to help the actual killers. It defines those killers as "the kind of people whose actions may be debatable but are undoubtedly people less indifferent than the public average." They showcase the names of murderers including Ami Popper who murdered seven innocent Arabs and on the association's page for some reason this detail was omitted and only published because he was sentenced to seven life sentences, why? It's probably not important enough."
"Many more murderers appear on Honenu's website. Gur Hamel who murdered his Arab neighbor, Nir Efroni who murdered an Arab worker at a gas station. Nehemiah Mashbaum, Tal Shachar, and Gershon Hershkovich, who threw a hand grenade and killed an Arab, Alan Goodman, who murdered a Waqf guard on the Temple Mount, are all people, Aliba Dahonano, who acted out of revenge and "perhaps their actions can be debated," said the rabbi.
"The good and important deeds of the Honenu Association, the importance of which can not be denied, do not justify in any way and in any situation support for the murderers. Honenu must not be supported until it stops supporting the murderers and those who tried to slaughter innocent girls. We will not be able to come with clean hands to the discussion on supporting criminal murderers such as the murderer of the Fogel family until we ourselves shake off the murderers from among our own people," concluded Rabbi Gordin.