(ZENIT News / Tel Aviv, 04.08.2025) – The US Ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, sent an exceptionally harsh letter on July 16 to the Israeli Interior Minister for restricting visas to Christian organizations working in Israel.
Huckabee was a Baptist pastor and routinely takes a pro-Israel stance. In the letter, he raised his concerns with Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, with copies to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; President Isaac Herzog; Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar; Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer; and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
The US Ambassador noted: «As of early 2025, the Visa Issuance Department has arbitrarily stopped complying with the recommendations of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and has initiated an independent investigation into each of the Evangelical organizations to determine whether they should be recognized as religious institutions and continue to be issued visas.»
The letter caused consternation among Israeli executive ranks because it threatened to invite evangelical Christians to suspend their visits to the country and block the sending of funds to the Jewish State. «If the Government of Israel continues to cause costly bureaucratic harassment in granting visas that have been commonplace for decades, I will have no choice but to instruct our Consular Section to review the options for mutual treatment of Israeli citizens applying for visas to the United States.»
Huckabee recalled: «As anti-Semitism grew around the world, the Evangelical Christian community remained steadfast and expressed even more explicit support,» as well as «the contributions of millions of dollars to combat anti-Semitism and concrete support for Israeli causes,» offered by «dozens of organizations such as the International Fraternity of Christians and Jews, Samaritans Purse, Christians United for Israel and many others.»
He also commented: «The Christian organizations did not at any time request different or special treatment, but simply a return to what has been an efficient and satisfactory process for many years.»
The U.S. Ambassador said on July 21, in a post on X, that the case had been resolved, thanking the Interior Minister and Attorney Calev Myers, representing some 150 Christian groups in Israel, whose intervention «was decisive.»
The visa issue was not the only source of friction between Huckabee and the Israeli Government. The U.S. Ambassador visited the Christian village of Taybeh, attacked by Israeli settlers, calling their actions an «act of terror and a crime» and demanding that those responsible be severely punished. «To desecrate a church, a mosque, or a synagogue is a crime against humanity and against God,» he said.
