Son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Changes His Name
by Basit Jamiu, https://www.facebook.com/legitngnews · Legit.ng News · Join- • Haaretz reported that Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, changed his name to Yonatan Hon
- • The name change was discovered through tax-withholding documents issued in 2025 that listed the new name alongside a fictional address
- • Yair's brother Avner also changed his surname years ago, continuing a long family tradition of name changes dating back generations
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has changed his legal name to Yonatan Hon, according to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz published in July, 2026.
The name change came to light through tax-withholding documents. Records from December 2024 still carried the name Yair Netanyahu, but the same identifying details appeared under the new name, Yonatan Hon, in 2025. The documents also listed a fictional address described as "Balfour 0".
The surname Hon is not entirely new territory for Yair. He had previously used "Yair Hoon" on social media. Hoon was the original surname of his maternal grandfather, Shmuel, before that branch of the family adopted the name Ben Artzi.
Family with a history of name changes
According to Middle East Eye, Yair is not the first in his family to quietly adopt a new surname. His brother Avner changed his name to Avi Segal roughly five years ago. Under that name, Avner purchased an apartment in Oxford, England, for £502,000 in cash, Israeli newspapers reported, in what was seen as an effort to keep a low profile. Segal was the original surname of Benjamin Netanyahu's mother, Tzila, before she married the family patriarch, Benzion Netanyahu.
Benjamin Netanyahu himself lived under the name Ben Nitai while residing in the United States during the 1980s, later saying he had considered settling there permanently.
The pattern goes back even further. Netanyahu's father, Benzion, was born Benzion Mileikowsky in Poland and changed his name after moving to participate in the Zionist settlement of historic Palestine during the British Mandate period in the 1920s.
That shift reflected a broader Zionist practice of replacing European surnames with Hebrew ones. Several of Israel's most prominent founding leaders did the same: David Ben-Gurion was born David Gruen, Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch, and Ariel Sharon was born Arik Scheinermann.
Political pressures on the Netanyahu Name
The reported name change comes at a difficult time for the Netanyahu family. Benjamin Netanyahu has grown into a divisive figure in American politics, and the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the conflict in Gaza.
Yair himself has attracted scrutiny over his business activities in the United States, including ties to far-right circles. In 2018, Israeli television broadcast a recording in which he appeared to boast outside that his father had helped facilitate a multibillion-dollar gas deal that benefited a wealthy businessperson. Benjamin Netanyahu also faces three separate corruption investigations inside Israel.
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