Jerusalem ? Israel has suspended contact with evangelist Pat Robertson for suggesting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine punishment for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. The controversy has cast doubt on plans for a Christian tourism center that would showcase the growing flow of money and influence from U.S. church groups.

The decision, announced Wednesday, does not affect other Christian groups that also consider it their spiritual duty to support Israel as fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Israeli leaders see the Christian allies as tireless lobbyists in Washington and elsewhere. The evangelicals also funnel millions of dollars each year to Jewish settlers in the West Bank and – before last year’s pullout – the Gaza Strip.

Tourism Minister Abraham Hirchson said he gave instructions to “stop all contact” with groups associated with Robertson. Last week, Robertson implied Sharon’s massive stroke was a blow for “dividing God’s land” with the withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements.

But Hirchson said the order did not apply to “all the evangelical community, God forbid.”

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise $50 million to build the Christian Heritage Center in Israel’s northern Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

American television personality and evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson delivers a speech to a crowd of mostly evangelical Christians from various nations on a pilgrimage to Israel in this Oct. 3, 2004, file photo. Israel won't do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday.

Under a tentative agreement, Robertson’s group was to put up the funding, while Israel would provide land and infrastructure. Hirchson had predicted it would draw up to 1 million pilgrims a year, generate $1.5 billion in spending and support about 40,000 jobs.

But the fate of the project is now in question, said Ido Hartuv, spokesman for the tourism ministry. “We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don’t back these comments,” Hartuv said.

A spokeswoman for Robertson’s ministry declined to comment on Israel’s decision.

Robertson’s comments on Sharon drew condemnation from other Christian leaders and President Bush.

“God considers this land to be his,” Robertson said on his TV program “The 700 Club.” “You read the Bible and he says ‘This is my land,’ and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, ‘No, this is mine.”‘

Robertson’s Christian Heritage Center is planned for 35 acres of rolling Galilee hills near key Christian sites, including Capernaum, the Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and Tabgha – on the shores of the Sea of Galilee – where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fish.