Embassy messages flagged tax demands, property seizures, and mounting pressure on historic Christian institutions. Reporting says the warning never reached Washington.
An urgent warning about Christian churches at risk in Israel reached Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s Jerusalem embassy.
Insight to Incite reported that the embassy received messages titled “Imminent Threat to Christian Churches in Israel” and “Follow up on Imminent Threat to Christian Churches in Israel,” then kept them from Washington.
The warnings concerned more than bruised feelings or a diplomatic misunderstanding. They described financial and legal pressure that threatened churches rooted in the Holy Land for centuries.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s August 2025 letter to Huckabee documented final collection notices demanding more than 17 million shekels from the Franciscans in Jerusalem, denied funds for Christian schools, threatened church-bank-account freezes, and foreclosure action against Armenian Patriarchate property.
“These actions pose an existential threat to Christian institutions that have been present in the Holy Land for centuries.”— Sen. Chris Van Hollen
The letter also pressed Huckabee to confront ongoing settler violence against the Christian town of Taybeh. In August, Huckabee called anti-Christian attacks “occasional but rare,” though a monitoring group cited by the Times of Israel recorded 107 incidents in the first half of 2026.
The church warning now sits beside the larger embassy-reporting scandal.
The New York Times reported that senior aide David Milstein blocked or rewrote Israel-critical diplomatic reports. It is also reported that Huckabee had to approve most major reports and decisions from Milstein, though officials said the aide sometimes acted alone.
Huckabee categorically rejected the Times investigation without addressing its specific examples.