[1/3]An aerial view of the Dagestani capital Makhachkala March 24, 2012. Portal/Grigory Dukor ACQUIRE LICENSE RIGHTS
Oct 30 (Portal) – Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in the predominantly Muslim Russian region of Dagestan on Sunday where a plane from Israel had just landed, forcing security forces to close the airport and withdraw the protesters.
According to local authorities, 20 people were injured before emergency services contained the protest at Makhachkala airport. The passengers on the plane were safe, security officials told Portal.
The unrest followed several other anti-Israel incidents in the North Caucasus, sparked by Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The Dagestan government announced early Monday that it was tightening security measures across the republic, home to about three million people.
The unrest in the region, where Russian security forces once fought an Islamist insurgency, could pose another challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is waging a war in Ukraine and faced an attempted mutiny this year.
Videos from Makhachkala airport obtained by Portal showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking glass doors and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is the greatest.”
Another group was seen attempting to overturn a patrol car.
The Russian aviation authority has closed the airport until security checks are completed. There were no immediate reports of arrests, but Russia’s Federal Investigation Agency ordered a criminal investigation into the incident.
Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the law, although Dagestanians “sympathize with the suffering of the victims of the acts of unjust people and politicians and pray for peace in Palestine.”
“It is not courage to wait as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden,” Melikov said on the messaging app Telegram.
Regional leaders in two other areas of the North Caucasus called for calm. A similar appeal was made by Dagestan’s top Muslim cleric, or mufti.
Following the recent wave of violence against Israeli and Jewish targets, Israel called on Russian authorities to protect Israelis and Jews on their territory.
In recent days, a Jewish center under construction in Nalchik, the capital of the nearby Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was set on fire, emergency officials said.
There were also reports on social media of small anti-Israel gatherings over the weekend in Dagestan and across the North Caucasus in southern Russia. Portal could not independently verify these reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed the events on Russia’s “widespread culture of hatred toward other nations, propagated by state television, experts and authorities.” There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.
Russia has tried to maintain contact with all sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but angered Israeli authorities by inviting a Hamas delegation to Moscow. The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador on Sunday.
Reporting by Portal. Writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Lisa Shumaker and Miral Fahmy
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab