Bengaluru: A US based evangelical channel GOD TV has been asked to go off-air as it is alleged to have hidden its missionary ideas in Israel, reports ABC news. 

The website adds that Asher Biton, the chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, said he had informed “GOD TV” that it had seven days to stop broadcasting.

“The channel appeals to Jews with Christian content. Its original request said it was a station targeting the Christian population,” he said. 

The controversy over GOD TV's “Shelanu” station has put Israel and its evangelical Christian supporters in an awkward position, exposing tensions the two sides have long papered over.

Evangelical Christians, particularly in the United States, are among the strongest supporters of Israel, viewing it as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some see it as the harbinger of a second coming of Jesus Christ and the end of days.

Israel has long welcomed evangelicals’ political and financial support, especially as their influence over the White House has risen during the Trump administration, and it has largely shrugged off concerns about any hidden religious agenda, the website notes. 

But most importantly, the website adds that Jews view any effort to convert them to Christianity as deeply offensive, a legacy of centuries of persecution and forced conversion at the hands of Christian rulers. In part because of those sensitivities, evangelical Christians, who generally believe salvation can only come through Jesus and preach the Gospel worldwide, rarely target Jews.