Russia arrests 60 after anti-Israeli rioters
storm Dagestan airport
Huge crowd waved Palestinian flags while chanting
antisemitic slogans as they searched for passengers who had arrived from Tel
Aviv.
BY CLAUDIA
CHIAPPA
OCTOBER 30,
2023 10:33 AM CET
Russian
police arrested 60 people Monday after a huge crowd stormed the main airport in
the Dagestan region to protest the arrival of a plane from Israel.
The
anti-Israeli riot broke out at the Makhachkala International Airport on Sunday
evening, following the arrival of a plane from Tel Aviv, reported Russian news
agencies. Protesters flooded the airport, breached the runway, waving
Palestinian flags while chanting antisemitic slogans and searching for
passengers from the plane, according to news reports and videos shared on
social media. Dagestan, which is a republic of Russia, has a predominantly
Muslim population.
Russia’s
Ministry of Internal Affairs said Monday it had identified 150 people who took
part in the riots and 60 of them had been taken into custody for further
investigation.
More than
20 people were injured during the furor, including nine police officers,
according to authorities and local news agencies.
Operations
at the airport were temporarily halted due to the protests and dozens of
flights were canceled on Sunday. Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said
normal operations would resume within two to three days.
On Monday,
Russia’s internal affairs ministry said the airport was “fully under the
control of law enforcement agencies” and the region’s government said security
measures would be strengthened across all cities and municipalities.
Melikov
called the riots a “gross violation of the law.”
“All
Daghestanis empathize with the suffering of the victims of the actions of
unrighteous people and politicians and pray for peace in Palestine,” he said on
messaging app Telegram. “But what happened at our airport is outrageous and
should be appropriately assessed by law enforcement agencies.”
Melikov
also spuriously claimed Kyiv was trying to destabilize the region by
instigating the riots, pointing to a Telegram channel that called for violence
and asserting it was controlled from Ukraine.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday reacted to the riots, blaming “Russia’s
widespread culture of hatred toward other nations” for the violence.
“Russian
antisemitism and hatred toward other nations are systemic and deeply rooted,”
said Zelenskyy, who is Jewish. “Hatred is what drives aggression and terror. We
must all work together to oppose hatred.”
In a
statement released Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
office called for Russia to “safeguard the well-being of all Israeli citizens
and Jews wherever they are and to take strong action against the rioters and
against the wild incitement being directed against Jews and Israelis.”
A
spokesperson from the White House National Security Council also condemned the
“antisemitic protests,” saying that the U.S. “unequivocally stands with the
entire Jewish community as we witness a worldwide surge in antisemitism.”
The
Israel-Hamas conflict escalated earlier this month after the Palestinian
militant group slaughtered over 1,400 people in Israel. Israel responded by
launching an offensive in Gaza and enforcing a blockade. Moscow has maintained
ties with Hamas — even welcoming a delegation from the group last week. Russia
has repeatedly warned against an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, which
President Vladimir Putin said would lead to a broader regional conflict.
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