Tucker Carlson to visit Israel after officials weigh banning his entry over anti-Israel activism

Israel considered barring former Fox News anchor turned Israel-critic, Tucker Carlson, from entering the country due to his controversial rhetoric but ultimately decided against the move to avoid a “diplomatic incident,” Israeli journalist Bar Shem Tov reported on 𝕏 this Tuesday.

American diplomats confirmed that Carlson, currently in Jordan, is expected to travel to Israel afterward, though the date of his arrival is unclear. He described his trip to the Holy Land as a quest for “the truth” about the condition of the local Christian population.

“In Israel, they’re not thriving. Their numbers are not growing, they are shrinking,” he said in a video released last week that focused on attacking Israel for its alleged mistreatment of Christians, featuring Jerusalem's Episcopal Archbishop Hosam Naoum.

In a speech in England last year, Naoum had likened Israel's food distribution system in Gaza to "The Hunger Games”, a dystopian book in which children are forced to compete in televised battles, without mentioning Hamas or October 7.

“The bottom line is there are fewer Christians now, far fewer, in absolute numbers and particularly as a percentage of population, than there were when the State [of Israel] was founded in 1948,” Carlson wrongly stated in the video. 

The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated at the end of 1946 that there were 145,060 Christians in modern-day Israel, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and Gaza combined, before seven Arab nations attacked the new state, causing large numbers of Christians to flee amid the war.

Despite a declining share of the overall population, Israel’s Christian population has grown in absolute terms by 0.7 percent annually since then, rising from 180,300 in 2023 to 184,200 in 2024, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.

According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, the percentage of Christians in Israel declined from 2.4 to 1.9% between 2000 and 2025. In Jordan, the decline over the same period was steeper, as the percentage of Christians more than halved from 2.6 to 1.1%. 

In the interview, Carlson did not address the shrinking population of Christians in Jordan or the broader region. 

How ironic is it that Tucker Carlson gets to visit Jordan, my country, to continue his anti-Israel campaign and to showcase how an Islamic country is taking care of a Christian site, while I, the Jordanian, can't, simply because I am a convert and pro-Israel?

Tucker Carlson…

— Dan Burmawi (@DanBurmawy) February 3, 2026

Carlon’s interview with Archbishop Naoum, instead, portrayed Jordanian Christians as largely successful and free. The video triggered a strong response from Dan Burmawi, author of Islam, Israel and the West: “How ironic is it that Tucker Carlson gets to visit Jordan, my country, to continue his anti-Israel campaign and to showcase how an Islamic country is taking care of a Christian site, while I, the Jordanian, can't, simply because I am a convert and pro-Israel?” 

"In Israel, Christians have been spat on, but Christians are free. Free, you idiot," he added.

Carlson's interview in Jordan, filmed on the banks of the eponymous river, also contained additional attacks against U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a favorite target of his for the past months. One segment was titled, "Jordan’s Muslim King Funds Christian Holy Sites as Huckabee Fails Jerusalem’s Christians."

BREAKING: Ambassador Huckabee says he’s known Tucker Carlson for decades—and it’s hard to believe someone suddenly abandons lifelong beliefs in their 50s unless money, not truth, is the motivation.

pic.twitter.com/fceIHNQUlB

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 27, 2026

Last year, he said in an interview with avowed antisemite and Nazi admirer, Nick Fuentes, that Christian Zionists were “seized by this brain virus,” listing Huckabee, Ted Cruz, John Bolton, George W. Bush and Carl Rove as people he disliked "more than anybody, you know, because it’s Christian heresy and I’m offended by that as a Christian.”

Writing on X last Thursday, Huckabee told Carlson, "Instead of talking ABOUT me, why don’t you come talk TO me? You seem to be generating a lot of heat about the Middle East. Why be afraid of the light?" Both have since confirmed that their teams are in contact but haven't announced a date for the interview yet. Huckabee is currently in the U.S. to accompany the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.

Carlson has become a highly contentious figure in American conservatism, particularly for his rejection of the U.S.-Israel alliance and Christian Zionism, and for antisemitic remarks that Yad VaShem said crossed into Holocaust denial.

His show has lent a platform to Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes and several other antisemitic conspiracy theorists, as well as the president of the Iranian regime and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who recently called Israel the "common enemy" of humanity. 

Carlson has also drawn criticism from online detractors who have nicknamed him “Qatarlson” after he repeatedly praised Qatar, participated in a conference in Doha, and said he intended to purchase an apartment there.