According to multiple outlets, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has threatened to publicly declare that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups, allegedly due to Israel’s failure to approve collective entry visas for Christian organizations.

Huckabee reportedly sent the strongly-worded letter to Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.

“It would be unfortunate if we were forced to publicly disclose that Israel is engaging in harassment and displaying a negative stance toward these groups,” Huckabee stated, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“Should this continue, I will have no choice but to consider implementing reciprocal measures against Israeli citizens requesting US visas,” he added.

More from The Jerusalem Post:

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The letter, one of the most severe ever sent by a US ambassador to an Israeli official, was also forwarded to several high-ranking Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, the N12 report added.

N12 further elaborated on Huckabee’s remarks, where he noted the irony of Israel’s stance against Christian organizations despite the strong US-Israel alliance under President Trump. According to Huckabee, the Israeli Interior Ministry has been independently investigating each evangelical organization, requiring them to submit detailed forms regarding their religious beliefs, activities, and assets in Israel.

As a result, these groups have been denied new visas for religious representatives, pending the investigation’s conclusion, the report noted.

“Arbel pushed back on the allegations in a response letter,” The Times of Israel stated.

Further details from The Times of Israel:

Given Huckabee’s longstanding support for Israel and close ties with the current government in particular, the rhetoric in his letter represented a shockingly quick deterioration.

But the issue at hand — the ability of Christian groups to tour Israel — is close to Huckabee’s heart, given that he has led countless such trips as an evangelical pastor over the past half a century.

The back-and-forth letters came almost two months after Huckabee and Arbel met on May 27 to discuss problems encountered by Christian Zionists seeking to visit Israel.

“It is with great distress that I write to you my profound disappointment that the meeting held in your office has not resulted in what I hoped to be a simple resolution of the issue of routine granting of visas for Christian organizations and workers, as has been practiced for decades,” Huckabee wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times of Israel on Friday.

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Huckabee wrote to Arbel that at the start of 2025, the Interior Ministry launched investigations into several evangelical Christian organizations with long ties to Israel, including the Baptist Conference in Israel and the Christian Missionary Alliance.

Huckabee informed Arbel that these organizations were required to complete lengthy questionnaires and that they had still not received new visas for religious leaders to travel to Israel, despite submitting their applications at the beginning of the year.

Read the full letter shared by The Times of Israel:

 

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