Hundreds of men running on the tarmac of Makhachkala airport, shouting "Allahu Akbar" and frantically searching for Israeli passengers aboard a flight from Tel Aviv. Dozens more demanded to search a hotel that allegedly housed "Jewish refugees." The pogrom-like scenes took place over the weekend in Dagestan, a Russian republic with a Muslim majority.
While Israel has intensified its offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas' bloody attack on its soil on 7 October, the conflict appears to have spilled over into the North Caucasus, home to a large Muslim community. This "highly flammable" region, according to several observers, was the scene of a wave of anti-Semitic incidents this weekend.
VIDEO. Dagestan: Crowd storms airport in search of Israeli passengers
First, on Saturday, at a rally in support of Palestine in Cherkessk, the capital of the neighboring Russian republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, dozens of demonstrators called for the expulsion of Jews from the region. In the evening, hundreds of people besieged a hotel in Khasaviurt, Dagestan, after rumors spread on social media that the facility was "full of Jews." Police allowed several people to inspect the building.
The next morning, a Jewish cultural center under construction in Nalchik, home to a large Jewish community, was set on fire and anti-Semitic inscriptions, such as "Death to the Jews," were discovered on the building. There are "about 800 Jewish families across Dagestan," local religious leaders told the Guardian.
Russia: Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Flamingo Hotel (43.24383, 46.58376) in Khasavyurt (đź“Ś Dagestan) to demand that the Jews be expelled from the hotel. The police let them in to make sure no Israelis were there.https://t.co/nZGsOLzxv1 pic.twitter.com/hNG4N53bto
— Rebecca Rambar (@RebeccaRambar) October 28, 2023
Before the storming of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Telegram channels announced the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv and called for preventing the arrival of "unwanted" passengers. The plane, a Red Wings airline, landed at 19 p.m. local time. It was a transit flight that was scheduled to take off again to Moscow at 21 p.m.
Sixty arrests
In the early evening, hundreds of men flocked to the airport. According to videos circulated on social media and in Russian media, they first checked vehicles and people leaving the airport to verify the identity of passengers. They then broke through the airport barriers, forced open the doors, exchanged blows with the security guards, before entering the terminal and then onto the tarmac and running towards the Red Wings plane. The passengers, who were beginning to exit the aircraft, were told by the crew to "return to the aircraft".
The crowd then quickly surrounded the plane. Some managed to climb onto the wing to get close to the windows and look inside the aircraft. Palestinian flags as well as signs reading "Child killers have no place in Dagestan" and "We are against Jewish refugees" were seen among the protesters.
Around 150 people were injured in the clashes, including nine police officers who were hit by projectiles. Two had to be hospitalized, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement. Sixty people were also arrested, said the ministry, which said it had identified "<> active participants".
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The incidents in Dagestan are not surprising to Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean, director of the Russia Center at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). "This region is among the most flammable in Russia," she said. However, while this Muslim region "naturally has sympathy for the Palestinian cause," what happened this weekend "is not just a peaceful protest in support of Palestinians, it is something reminiscent of anti-Jewish pogroms and is probably directed."
Some say the Kremlin is behind it, while the Kremlin on Monday denounced "external interference". Even if it is still too early to say "who benefits from this action", Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean acknowledges, "the risks are very great for the very stability of Russia". In a sign of the worrying situation, President Vladimir Putin announced that he would hold a meeting in the evening, including with the defence and foreign ministers.