In February, President Donald Trump suggested evicting 2.2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and rebuilding it as a luxury “riviera.” A few days later, Israel advanced plans to build 1,000 new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, according to an Israeli peace group. And a few days after that, Israeli tanks rolled into West Bank refugee camps for the first time in decades, as part of military operations that have forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes ­— with Israel’s defense minister saying they won’t be allowed to return anytime soon.

For those who wish to see a united Palestinian homeland, it was a month of nightmares. For Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, the moves fit perfectly into the maximalist vision of the Holy Land he has promulgated for decades.

In his long career as a politician and media personality, Huckabee has made his views on the Israel–Palestine conflict well known. He believes that, according to the Bible, only Israel has legitimate claim to the Holy Land and that Palestinians who can’t accept this should leave. Now, if he can be confirmed by the Senate, where he faced his first hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Huckabee can bring his religious worldview to bear as the U.S. ambassador to Israel — and find allies in Trump’s White House.

Little attention has been paid to how Huckabee and others have inspired such fervent support for Israel among grassroots American evangelicals. Part of the answer lies in the cottage industry of evangelical pilgrimages to the Holy Land — led by religious leaders like Huckabee himself.

In all-inclusive package tours, Huckabee whisks pilgrims to dozens of sites around Israel and the West Bank. The journeys cover “the teachings, battles and miracles of the Bible,” according to a promotion on Huckabee’s Facebook page. Travelers learn about ancient Israel and trace its lineage to the modern, powerful state they see today. Then they fly home with a message imprinted on their souls: Israel is the Jewish homeland, blessed by God, and America must safeguard it.

“It’s like Disneyland on steroids,” said John Munayer, a Palestinian native of Jerusalem and theologian of Palestinian Christianity.

“It reaffirms everything they believe,” Munayer said of people who take the tours. “To them, everything is a fulfillment of prophecy.”

“This is a political pilgrimage using religion as a way to justify injustices.”

According to critics, among them seven tour guides interviewed by The Intercept, evangelical Christian tours in the Holy Land, attended largely by Americans, studiously avoid any exposure to the 5.1 million Palestinians who also believe they have the right to live there.

“Huckabee’s view is Palestinians have no right to be there,” said Jerusalem native Aziz Abu Sarah, co-founder of the U.S.-based MEJDI Tours. “I can trace my family history back hundreds of years. By what logic can you go to my dad who was born in Palestine and say, ‘You need to leave’? It’s an absurdity that’s done under the belief that this is a religious tour. This is a political pilgrimage using religion as a way to justify injustices.”

The Trump administration defended Huckabee’s........

© The Intercept