The diplomatic dispute triggered by a low-level clerk in Israel’s Interior Ministry over visa applications for Christian organizations was resolved on Monday through “fruitful cooperation,” attorney Calev Myers told Fox News Digital.

“The Evangelical Christian organizations active in Israel, which represent the vast majority of Zionists in the world today, will receive all of the visas they need through a streamlined and efficient application process,” he said.

The issue burst into the news last week when U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee publicized a letter he wrote to Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, in which he expressed “great distress” over a halt to the “routine granting of visas for Christian organizations and workers, as has been practiced for decades.”

In response, Moshe Arbel sent a letter to Huckabee, reaffirming his “commitment to reviewing such applications [for clergy visas] with the utmost efficiency.” He wrote that “immediately following our meeting, I instructed all relevant professional bodies to act in accordance with the understandings we reached, and I assigned advisors from my office – headed by the chief of staff – to ensure a personal, continuous, and effective response to such requests.”

Arbel’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital: “There is no fear of diplomatic repercussions. The issue is being handled in a good and friendly manner.”

Orthodox Christians carry wooden crosses along the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering) in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Orthodox Good Friday procession on April 14, 2023. (Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

When contacted by Fox News Digital, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem declined to comment.

As of the end of 2024, Israel’s Christian population was estimated at 180,300 – roughly 1.8% of the total population – reflecting a 0.6% increase from 2023, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the local Christian population is growing.

David Parsons, vice president of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital that he is “very grateful that the U.S. ambassador has intervened on behalf of all the Christian organizations.

“It’s a shame that it takes this sort of action when the government and the minister of interior should have reined in the head of the visa section and corrected her wrong decisions,” he said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Fox News Digital that he had spoken to individuals on both sides of the issue and believed it “was a misunderstanding and the Christian groups will get what they need. This does not at all speak to the very important relationship that Israel has with the Christian community,” he said.