US Amb. Huckabee blasts & threatens Israeli gov’t over visa restrictions for Evangelical orgs

U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, blasted the Israeli interior ministry for continuing to restrict visas issued to Christian organizations working in Israel in an exceptionally harshly worded letter that leaked to the Israeli press on Thursday.

In a response letter, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party expressed his shock, claiming that his office had quickly addressed every request that was brought to his attention.

Arbel added he was “particularly surprised” about the manner in which Huckabee raised his concerns, as he sent copies of his letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.

“It is with great distress that I express to you my profound disappointment [that the] meeting held in your office has not resulted in what I had hoped to be the start of a resolution of the issue of routine granting of visas for Christian organizations,” Huckabee wrote, according to Israeli media outlets.

The unprecedented letter was revealed some two months after Huckabee and Arbel had met personally to discuss the problem of visa restrictions for Evangelical organizations.

A similar problem had appeared to have been solved almost two years ago, when ministry officials apologized and vowed to streamline the process of issuing clerical visas to Christian organizations, which enables their staff to stay and work in Israel for a period of several years.

However, Ynet News reported that Huckabee complained about new investigations, begun in 2025, of organizations that had had longstanding ties with Israel, like the Baptist Conference in Israel and the Christian Missionary Alliance.

According to quotes from Huckabee’s letter published by Israeli media, the ministry had subjected each organization to independent, detailed and bureaucratic investigation processes, requiring documentation of their religious beliefs and activities in Israel.

For the duration of these processes, the groups were reportedly denied new visas.

In his response letter, Arbel claimed not to have been aware of the cases mentioned by Huckabee and vowed to rectify them.

When a similar matter arose two years ago, representatives of Christian organizations had noted that it wasn’t always clear whether the bureaucratic harassment came from the top level of the ministry or from mid-level officials.

Evangelical Christians and Messianic Jews living in Israel have often complained about the hostile attitude of some officials in the interior ministry, which, over the past decades, has almost always been in the hands of the Shas Party.

Parts of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community are hostile toward Christians, suspecting them of trying to 'missionize' Jews – a practice some view as an attempt to convert Jews away from Judaism, which they believe threatens the survival of the Jewish people.

Therefore, prospective immigrants who are known to believe in Jesus are sometimes refused the right to immigrate, even if they are of Jewish background under the halacha, Jewish religious law.

“It is incomprehensible that the situation is deteriorating rather than improving. The US and evangelical Christian organizations are Israel’s allies, yet we are being treated like adversaries. As the US Ambassador, I formally request a resolution to the deteriorating relations with the Ministry of the Interior to avoid further escalation,” wrote Huckabee.

The ambassador continued, writing, “It would be deeply unfortunate if our embassy is forced to publicly inform Americans that Israel does not welcome Christian organizations and is instead subjecting them to harassment and ill treatment.”

The letter concluded with unprecedentedly harsh warnings, of the type rarely heard before in the history of the close relationship between Israel and the U.S.

“We will have no choice but to inform American Christians that their generous contributions are being met with hostility and advise them to reconsider their travel plans.”

“If the Israeli government continues its bureaucratic harassment, I will have no choice but to instruct our consular department to consider reciprocal actions against Israeli citizens applying for US visas. This is not the type of relationship Israel wants to maintain with its closest ally,” Huckabee concluded.