Action film legend Jean-Claude Van Damme is currently in Israel on a five-day visit to the Holy Land, but the famous martial arts star apparently let opponents of Israel get the best of him in a short bout on Facebook Tuesday.
Van Damme began his private holiday in Tiberias, and on Tuesday went to the Old City in Jerusalem where he donned a large kippah and prayed at the Kotel (Western Wall), where he left a note in a crevice of the wall remaining from the Holy Temple.
However, the skilled combatant soon found himself in for a fight after he posted a picture on Facebook showing him standing by the Old City walls near Yafo Gate, with the famous Tower of David seen in the background.
"Shalom from Jerusalem, Israel!! IL," read Van Damme's comment on the post, but within around ten minutes according to the edit history of the post the barrage of anti-Israel responses apparently forced him to edit to the current message: "Hello from Jerusalem!!"
While the pro-Palestinian outrage may have caused him to edit the post, which can be viewed here, a muted victory remained for the Jewish state: in the picture the action star is wearing a hat emblazoned with the word "ISRAEL."
In the comments on the post, anti-Israel sentiment abounded, with one user writing: "you should say salam from palestine," while another wrote: "Jeruzalem is not from israel But from Palestina."
Some users fought back, however, with one saying, "Israel loves u. U shouldn't care about other ppl who think that its another country, u and I and the rest of the world knows who is good and who is not Long live ISRAEL."
Van Damme is not new to the Old City - back in 2000 he filmed "The Order" in the ancient city, including a scene in which he fights while dressed as a haredi Jew.