Mob storms Dagestan airport in search of Jewish
passengers from Israel
Airport in Russia’s Muslim southern region closed
after hundreds storm tarmac and climb on to planes
Andrew Roth
Sun 29 Oct
2023 23.49 GMT
A mob in
Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan has stormed the airport in
Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel.
In the past
day, local people have besieged a hotel in search of Jewish guests and stormed
the airport after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in
the city. Passengers were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the
airport for fear of being attacked.
Local
health authorities said that 20 people had been injured, including two who were
critical. The RIA news agency said nine police officers had received injuries
in the incident, two of whom were being treated in hospital. The passengers on
the plane were safe, security forces told Reuters.
Sixty
people were later detained, RIA reported on Monday, adding that 150 of the
protesters had been identified.
Video
posted to social media showed hundreds of young men, some carrying Palestinian
flags or placards denouncing Israel, storming on to the tarmac of the
Makhachkala international airport and climbing on to idling planes, attempting
to break through the windows.
Airline
employees were shown hustling passengers back inside planes as the crowds
approached the aircraft. Russia closed Makhachkala airport on Sunday evening
due to “intruders” at the airport.
“This is
your captain,” one announcement said. “There’s an angry mob outside that
doesn’t know where we’ve come from and why [we are here]. It’s possible we’ll
also come under attack.”
The riots
appear to have been inspired by a number of posts on the social media platform
Telegram, where followers were told that a flight from Tel Aviv would be
arriving that evening with refugees from Israel.
Some of the
signs held by the rioters read, “We are against Jewish refugees”. Police stood
by as hundreds of protesters surged into the airport’s main terminal, entering
restricted areas and demanding that customs officials direct them toward the
arriving passengers.
Followers
of Utro Dagestan, one of the Telegram accounts that regularly carries news
mixed with conspiracy theories, were told to besiege the local airport,
interrogate arriving passengers and demand that they denounce the Israeli
government.
The account
also called on local people to follow any arriving Israelis, take pictures of
their vehicles and write down the addresses where they were staying.
Other video
from the airport showed people accosting airline passengers, including those
who appeared to have just arrived on the flight from Israel. They said they
were also locals who had travelled abroad for medical help.
The
Dagestani government said early on Monday that it was strengthening security
measures across the republic, which is home to about 3 million people.
Sergei
Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the
law, even as Dagestanis “empathize with the suffering of victims of the actions
of unrighteous people and politicians, and pray for peace in Palestine”.
“There is
no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything
forbidden,” Melikov said on the Telegram messaging app, while elsewhere blaming
external actors for the riots, saying they occurred “because of fakes spread by
our enemies”.
Russia’s
aviation authority said late on Sunday that all “unauthorised citizens” had
been removed from the airport, while video clips circulating online appeared to
show police arresting some protesters.
Local
religious authorities have suggested that they may need to evacuate an
estimated 800 Jewish families from across Dagestan, many of them in the
southern city of Derbent.
“The
situation is very difficult in Dagestan. People from the community are afraid,
they call, and I do not know what to advise,” Ovadya Isakov, a government
representative of the local Jewish community, told the Podyom news outlet. “Is
it worth leaving? Because Russia is not our salvation. There were pogroms in
Russia too. It is unclear where to run.”
Prominent
figures in Dagestan have spoken in support of Palestine and against the Israeli
state since 7 October, when a Hamas raid sowed terror in southern Israel,
killing more than 1,400. In response, the Israeli government has unleashed a
bombing campaign against Gaza, killing an estimated 8,000 as of Sunday,
according to local officials.
Khabib
Nurmagomedov, a former mixed-martial arts champion and possibly the most famous
figure in Dagestan, posted to more than 35 million followers on Instagram
earlier this month that Israel was engaged in “genocide” in Gaza.
Reports of
anti-Jewish acts were not confined to Makhachkala. In Nalchik, another city in
the neighbouring Kabardino-Balkaria region, a planned Jewish centre was set on
fire earlier on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, protesters also besieged a hotel in
the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, searching rooms for “Jewish refugees”.
“We are
receiving reports from 4 different cities in Dagestan … of mobs demanding to
kill the Jews,” tweeted Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, a former chief rabbi of
Moscow who left in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of
Ukraine. “A direct result of the Russian government’s siding with Hamas in this
conflict and lack of condemnation of the massacre of 7/10.”
A
delegation from Hamas, the Palestinian organisation’s first high-profile
international trip since the 7 October attacks, arrived in Moscow earlier this
week for meetings with the Russian foreign ministry.
Commenting
on the airport storming, Israel in a statement urged the Russian authorities to
protect Israelis and Jews in their jurisdictions.
“The state
of Israel views gravely attempts to harm Israeli citizens and Jews anywhere,”
the foreign ministry in Jerusalem said. “Israel expects the Russian law
enforcement authorities to safeguard all Israeli citizens and Jews.”
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