Israeli martial artist Haim Gozali is facing backlash after writing the names of Muslim UFC fighters on an artillery shell to be used in the war on Hamas.
Gozali, whose nickname is “Israeli Batman,” wrote the names Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev and Belal Muhammad in red ink and posted a photo of it to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Israeli cage fighter captioned the photo, “this is from me to the [rat emoji].”
Gozali’s post has since been removed from the social media platform for violating the rules, but screenshots of the post are still being widely shared.
A screenshot of the post shared by political commentator Jackson Hinkle with a comment calling it “disgusting” has 29,000 likes.
🚨 DISGUSTING!
🇮🇱 Israeli MMA fighter Haim Gozali published a photo of a projectile with the names of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev and Belal Muhammad.
Gozali also captioned the photo, “This is from me for 🐀” pic.twitter.com/vCEQopzPvK
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) November 2, 2023
Former UFC fighter Jake Shields responded to Hinkle’s post writing, “He’s a bum and all them would beat him in under a minute.”
He’s a bum and all them would beat him in under a minute
— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) November 2, 2023
Conor McGregor infamously called Nurmagomedov’s manager a “terrorist snitch” and his father a “quivering coward,” before being badly beaten by the Muslim fighter in the ring.
Chechen-born UFC fighter Chimaev previously had an exchange with Gozali on Instagram.
In a post that has since been deleted, Chimaev wrote, “‘You are just guests of Palestine’ respect them for giving you asylum. One day they will expel you from Palestine, Inshallah. Bring me the strongest man in Israel, I will break him.'”
Gozali responded to the post saying, “I’m not the strongest man in Israel but I dare you to come and ‘try’ break me any day! I know you have a contract with the @ufc and I couldn’t care less so I challenge you to a bare knuckle fight or Grappling…your choice!!!! Waiting for you if you even dare.”
Before becoming a professional fighter, Gozali served in the Israeli Border Police.
