At least 60 people were detained and more than 20 were injured this Sunday at an airport in the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, with a Muslim majority, where a crowd was looking for Israelis and Jews, authorities reported this Monday.
Among those injured at Makhachkal airport were nine police officers, two of whom were hospitalized, according to the Interior Ministry department for the North Caucasus federal district, which added that more than 150 riot participants had been identified. .
Hundreds of people took over the airport and tarmac following calls on the messaging platform Telegram to head to the airport before flights from Israel arrived and search planes and cars for Israelis and Jews, in a protest against the conflict between Israel and the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas.
According to Russian media outlets such as Echo of Dagestan, the crowd shouted anti-Semitic slogans and “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great). Shots were also heard.
Some of the people ran onto the runway and tried to board a plane that had arrived from Tel Aviv, according to videos posted on social media.
Security forces managed to evacuate the airport after several hours of unrest.
“Doctors are treating ten victims of the incident at Makhachkala airport in hospitals,” the Dagestan Ministry of Health reported, according to the TASS news agency. Two of them are in critical condition and ten others suffered minor injuries.
The Federal Air Transport Agency initially ordered the airport closed until Nov. 6, but later said the measure would only apply until Tuesday.
The governor of the republic, Sergey Melikov, wrote on Telegram that “the actions of those who gathered at Makhachkala airport are a serious violation of the law.”
The entire population identifies with the “suffering of the victims of the unjust actions of people and politicians and prays for peace in Palestine, but what happened at the airport is outrageous and must be properly evaluated by the police authorities,” he stated.
In turn, the Russian Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatiana Moskalkova, stated that “the events that occurred at the airport are clearly intended to incite ethnic hatred and could give rise to serious violations of human rights.”
“The goal is to destabilize civil peace in Russia. In these difficult times, I urge the citizens of Dagestan not to succumb to provocations and to strictly follow the law and the calls of the authorities,” he stressed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also condemned the unrest and attributed the protesters’ actions to “anti-Semitism and Russian hatred against other nations,” which he called “systematic” and “deeply rooted.”
The Ukrainian head of state also associated the events with the “anti-Semitic comments” made in recent months by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the president himself, Vladimir Putin.
The United States had already made public its position on the events: “The United States strongly condemns the anti-Semitic demonstrations in Dagestan, Russia,” wrote the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, on the social network (formerly Twitter) , on Sunday.
“The United States unequivocally stands with the entire Jewish community as we witness a global rise in anti-Semitism,” he added.
*News updated at 7:15 am
Source: TSF
