Dispute over Christian groups' visas to Israel resolved after Huckabee threat
2025-07-21 15:20:19
Lawyer Calif Maires in Fox News Digital stated this diplomatic conflict caused by a low -level writer in the Israeli Ministry of Interior regarding visa requests for Christian organizations on Monday through “fruitful cooperation”.
He said: “The active evangelical Christian organizations in Israel, which represent the vast majority of the Zionists in the world today, will receive all the visas they need through a simplified and effective request.”
The case stormed the news last week when the US ambassador to Israel Mike Hackabi He published a letter he wrote to Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Erbl, as he expressed “great distress” due to the “giving visas to Christian organizations and workers, and they were also practiced for decades.”
Huckabe condemns the efforts to erase the Jewish history to the Holy Land as “silly”
According to Hakapi, starting in early 2025, the Ministry of Interior visa stopped following the recommendations of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and began conducting its own investigations into each Christian organization to determine whether it should be recognized as “religious institutions” and remains qualified to obtain visas.
He mentioned as examples of the Baptist agreement of Israel, the Christian missionary coalition and the associations of God, noting that the members of these groups have been deprived of renewing the visas of A3 clerics and instead they are required to complete long questionnaires about their religious beliefs. Hakapi said that their requests were still “under investigation.”
Also called the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem as another group whose visa was “complex”.
He threatened that unless changes are made, “I will not have an option to direct our consular section to review mutual treatment options for Israeli citizens looking for visas to the United States.”
A source told Fox News Digital that the case arose with a low -level writer in the Ministry of Interior in Israel, who was not “particularly friendly” towards the applicants in the Christian visa. As a result, the clergy and volunteer visa process has become a “increasing problem” and full of “barriers for years.”
The second source told Fox News Digital that the elements in the Israeli Ministry of Interior “are not sympathetic, and they do not value the relationship” with the Christian world.
The former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Orn Fox News Digital told him that he participated in helping to obtain visas for Christian organizations that do a “unusual and important process” and there is no reason to give them a difficult time.
“When Israel’s support around the world – and in the United States – is under pressure, support from our Christian friends is very important,” said Orn. “They are with thick and gentle – including when bombs fall on us – and they contribute in several ways. Whether they choose grapes, people attend hospitals, or cook soldiers for soldiers. We should do nothing but appreciate them and make them feel welcome.”
The Ministry of the Interior, responsible for the Population and Immigration Authority, led the Shas extremist party, a member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alliance, to moved from the government last week on the issue of recruitment in the Israeli army to the thigh girls.
According to the first source, the rotation of the leadership in the Population and Immigration Authority has exacerbated the case. Amos Erbl, the former head of power, and the uncle of the Interior Minister Moshe Erbl, stepped down about five years ago. Its alternatives revolve through the position in the quick caliphate, and the current role is vacant.
“The absence of the stable leadership allowed a lower official-the head of the visa department-with unilateral decisions,” the source explained. “It routinely ignores the recommendations, including those received from the Ministry’s religious affairs advisor.”
“It is a chronic problem, and it is frustrated,” the source said. “The intervention of a person like Ambassador Hakapi should not be taken to solve what is a routine bureaucratic issue.”
Evangelical Christians, who have long supported Israel, are visiting wartime volunteers
In response, Moshe Erbl sent a letter to Hakapi, where he reaffirmed “his commitment to review these requests [for clergy visas] With maximum efficiency. He wrote that “immediately after our meeting, I issued instructions to all professional bodies related to disposal in accordance with the understandings that we have reached, and appointed consultants from my office – headed by the Chief of Staff – to ensure a personal, continuous and effective response to such requests. “
“There is no fear of diplomatic repercussions. The issue is dealt with in a good and friendly manner,” Erbl Office said in a statement to the Fox News digital newspaper.
When contacting him Fox News Digital, the Prime Minister in Jerusalem refused to comment.
As of the end of 2024, Israeli population was estimated at about 180300 – about 1.8 % of the total population – which reflects an increase of 0.6 % from 2023, according to the data of the Central Office for Statistics. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the local Christian population grows.
“It is very grateful because the American ambassador may enter on behalf of all Christian organizations,” David Parsons, Vice President of Jerusalem International for the Christian Embassy, told Fox News Digital.
He said, “It is a shameful matter that this type of procedure requires when the government and the Minister of Interior should have been confirmed in the head of the visa department and correct its wrong decisions,” he said.
The former American ambassador to Israel David Friedman Fox News Digital told that he spoke to individuals on both sides of the issue and believed that “a misunderstanding and that Christian groups will get what they needed. This does not speak at all to the very important relationship that Israel has with Christian society.”
[og_img]
Post Comment