In Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia, a mob materialized and surged through the local airport in protest against the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, they held signs saying “We are against Jewish refugees” and “There is no place for child-killers in Dagestan”.
The mob stormed the airport’s main terminal, surging into restricted areas and harassing customs officials demanding to know where the Jewish refugees were. The “protestors” eventually made their way out onto the tarmac and began to surround planes, looking for the Israelis.
Specifically, they were initially hunting a Red Wing Airlines flight from Tel Aviv that landed at 7:17 p.m. local time; the aircraft was quickly surrounded following landing.
When word spread that a plane from Tel Aviv was landing in Dagestan, Russia, a mob stormed the airport in what can only be described as a modern-day pogrom. pic.twitter.com/1G6phfdraz
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 29, 2023
In #Dagestan, a crowd stormed the building of Makhachkala airport in search of Jews from a flight from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/TaBvakBKIE
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 29, 2023
In one video the pilot can be heard over the plane air-com saying “It is not safe to open the door” because “protesters are below our plane.” Another pilot in an aircraft nearby with no affiliation to Israel makes a similar announcement, “This is your captain. There’s an angry mob outside that doesn’t know where we’ve come from and why. It’s possible we’ll also come under attack.”
Videos show protestors as they storm the tarmac, climb on top of parked planes, and attempt to break through the windows.
The Russian Federal Transport Agency announced that, following the altercations with protestors, Makhachkala Airport would be closed temporarily and flights diverted accordingly.
According to the Russian news agency RIA, at least twenty people were injured (including nine police officers) and a handful were in critical condition. 150 of the protestors were identified by name and 60 of them were detained. All plane passengers appeared unharmed and physically safe.
Why does Russia hold onto these barbaric Islamist areas?
Obviously there’s oil fields in the Grozny region, but it can’t be just that, surely?
(A Muslim mob storms an airport looking to lynch Jews after a flight arrived from Israel) #Dagestan pic.twitter.com/Q8FOC6xnUK— Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) October 29, 2023
Israeli Ambassador Alex Ben Zvi is in close communication with the Kremlin to ensure the security of Jews and Israelis at the site and the Israeli Prime Minister’s office issued a statement addressing the situation in Dagestan:
“Israel expects the Russian legal authorities 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.”
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson posted that “The United States vigorously condemns the antisemitic protests in Dagestan Russia. The US unequivocally stands with the entire Jewish community as we witness a worldwide surge in antisemitism. There is never any excuse or justification for antisemitism.”
Sergey Melikov, head of the Dagestan Republic denounced the incident via Telegram. “By your poorly thought-out actions, you only aggravate the situation, pleasing the scoundrels who want to exploit the desire to see justice and the impassioned attitude of other people’s grief and unity, which have always distinguished Dagestanis….There is no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden.”
The riots themselves appear to have been sparked through conversations and group chats on the same app, Telegram. Followers were told that the Tel Aviv flight would be arriving with Israeli refugees and pro-Palestinian support subsequently fomented into anti-Israeli/Jewish mobilization.
Telegram has been a pillar of original-source video footage from the Israel-Palestine conflict. While in the days following the atrocities of Oct. 7 videos of the brutalization of civilians proliferated through Twitter and Instagram, both platforms quickly took action to remove that kind of unmarketable content; Telegram emerged as the go-to-place for footage of the war and of the barbaric scenes on the ground in Gaza. Members of Hamas are also prolific Telegram patrons.
Utro Dagestan, a popular conspiracy theorist Telegram account, told its followers to besiege the local airport, interrogate arriving passengers, and demand that they denounce the Israeli government.
Utro Dagestan also urges its followers to photograph and video any vehicles that might be taking the Israeli refugees from the airport, as well as addresses where they might be staying.
These militant antisemitic sentiments are not new in the mostly Muslim region of Dagestan.
“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. “A direct result of the Russian government’s siding with Hamas in this conflict and lack of condemnation of the massacre of 7/10.” (In its first high-profile international trip since the attacks of Oct. 7, Hamas sent a delegation to Moscow earlier this week for meetings with the Russian Foreign Ministry)
Earlier on Sunday a planned Jewish center in the neighboring city of Nalchik was set on fire and locals “besieged” a hotel in search of the alleged Jewish refugees it was housing.
“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.”
Local religious authorities have suggested that they might need to evacuate roughly 800 Jewish families across Dagestan, most of whom live in the city of Derbent.
