A Christian advocate for universal prayer on the Temple Mount was misidentified as a Jew by a Hamas affiliated news site, leading to numerous death threats being posted in the comments on her video.
Jan Kiel, a Christian from Denmark known as Jerusalem Jane, frequently visits the Temple Mount and due to her advocacy has been ejected by Waqf (Muslim authority) guards on four separate occasions. Her most recent visit was on Tuesday when due to a boycott of the site by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, no Muslims were on the Temple Mount. Waqf guards, who actively seek out Jane, removed her from the site.
Jane posted her video of the visit on social media and she was quoted in a Breaking Israel News article about the situation on the Temple Mount. In her video, Jane remarked that the atmosphere at the site was unprecedented.
“It’s so quiet,” she commented. “There is no screaming, no hate! This is the way it’s supposed to be. Without all the hate and lies.”
Jane’s video was posted on the website of Shehab News, a Gaza based news site affiliated with Hamas with the headline “WATCH: Jewish Tourist Ridicules Arabs and Muslims From Within the Aqsa Mosque”. The article was posted to Shehab’s Facebook page and garnered over 370,000 views. Among the thousands of comments were many threats aimed at Jane.
“They got it all wrong,” Jane told Breaking Israel News. “I am not against Arabs and I certainly was not making fun of them. I was enjoying that there was no anger at the site.”
Jane’s vision is of universal prayer: all religions coming together peacefully.
“If the Muslims want to receive respect, they need to give respect,” she said. “When Jews and Christians go up to the Temple Mount, they are being met with anger. The holy site has been turned into a temple of hatred.”
That message was clearly lost on Shehab’s readers.
Abd Alrahman Shabanah commented, “Allah willing, a hero will come to stab you in the heart”.
Harith Alobaidy from Iraq wrote, “You will taste my bullets and we will kill all of you, Allahu Akhbar (Allah is greater).
An anonymous commenter wrote, “Read the Koran and you will understand, there is no escape. We will shoot them all wherever they are as a sacrifice.”
Another man who lives in Hebron wrote, “I hope to one day cut you into pieces until you die.”
Another young man, who lives in Los Angeles, wrote, “I swear to Allah that one day you will be slaughtered.”
A woman from Ramallah wrote, “Your fate is a knife tearing into your neck.”
A man from Jordan wrote, “May a Palestinian kill her tomorrow.”
A woman from Ramallah wrote, “God willing, you will be cut to pieces.”
The threats were, in fact, far too numerous to print. Jane takes the threats seriously. She disabled the GPS on her cellular phone and is taking an indefinite break from broadcasting live. She is concerned but undaunted.
“This is not going to change me,” Jane said. “I came here to stand for the truth, and I hope to continue. I will not back down for fear. The world needs to know.”
