US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has threatened to publicly declare that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups to Israel over what he said was Jerusalem’s failure to approve tourist visas for evangelical missions.

The threat was issued in a letter that Huckabee sent to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, which was leaked to Hebrew media on Thursday. Arbel pushed back on the allegations in a response letter that was obtained by The Times of Israel.

Huckabee in his letter sent on Wednesday even threatened to order his embassy to take reciprocal measures against Israeli tourists seeking visas to enter the US.

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 one that 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 that were leaked to the press came almost two months after the two men met on May 27 to discuss problems encountered by Christian Zionists seeking to visit Israel.

“It is with great distress that I 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 in the letter which was partially shown on Channel 12’s broadcast.

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

Huckabee told Arbel that these organizations were made to fill out long questionnaires and that they have still not received new visas for religious leaders to travel to Israel since the start of the year.

Huckabee 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.

In addition to threatening a public announcement that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups, Huckabee said he would warn American Christians that their donations are not received warmly, and that tourists should reconsider any plans to visit Israel if the issue is not resolved.

“Unfortunately, if the Israeli government continues to cause bureaucratic harassment, I will have no choice but to instruct our consular department to explore the possibility of reciprocal treatment of Israeli citizens applying for visas to the United States. This is certainly not the relationship that the State of Israel wants to have with its best partner and friend on Earth,” Huckabee wrote, according to a copy of the letter leaked to Hebrew media.

After receiving the letter, Arbel — of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party — responded, saying that he was “particularly surprised” by the way in which the envoy raised his concerns.

“Every request that was personally brought to the attention of my office has been addressed within an exceptionally short timeframe,” Arbel insisted.

“In my view, this course of action deviates from accepted working norms and does not reflect the direct and constructive relationship we have established, he said, adding that the relationship between the two countries is “among the most valued and significant partnerships.”

“I greatly appreciate your consistent support for Israel and your steadfast commitment to our partnership. For this reason, I believe it is incumbent upon us to act in a spirit of coordination, mutual trust, and respect — even when misunderstandings or difficulties arise,” Arbel concluded.

The private exchange that quickly turned public came on the heels of an apparent Israeli strike on Gaza’s sole Catholic church on Thursday that killed three people and injured several, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, drawing international condemnation and expression of “deep sorrow” from Israel. The military said the church was struck by accident, and that it is investigating what happened.

Earlier this week, Huckabee weighed in on unchecked settler violence in the West Bank for the first time, calling on the Israeli government to investigate the “terrorist killing” of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American in the village of Sinjil last week.