Several anti-semitic incidents were recorded in the Caucasus, a Russian region made up of three majority-Muslim republics, on October 28 and 29. In one of these incidents, a mob stormed an airport to search for "Israelis" and "Jews" on a flight from Tel Aviv. Our team spoke to a researcher who said that while these incidents were sparked by the war between Hamas and Israel, there is also a more complex regional context.
A mob made up of hundreds of men flooded an airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan to search for "Israelis" or “Jews” on a flight from Tel Aviv. This was one of several anti-Semitic acts that occurred on October 28 and 29 in the Russian Caucasus region, which is majority Muslim. These acts were sparked by anger over the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
A number of videos posted online show men gathered outside the airport in the capital city of Makhatchkala. They force open the doors of the airport, then flood onto the tarmac. Some of the men were wearing masks. Some carried Palestinian flags. Others could be heard shouting "Allah Akbar".
Passengers on several flights were stuck inside the planes for several hours until the disturbance ended.
Men were also stopping cars that were leaving the airport in order to check who was inside. Security forces eventually arrived, arresting nearly 60 people. Nine police officers were injured, according to authorities.
On the same day, mobs formed outside two different hotels in another town in Dagestan, Khassaviourt. The mobs said they wanted to check the hotel guests to make sure they didn’t include any Israelis.
At a protest in support of Palestinians in Cherkessk, the capital of the Russian Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, some people called for the "expulsion of the Jews”.
On October 29, the next day, a Jewish cultural centre that was under construction was burned down in Naltchik, the capital of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Someone also spray-painted the phrase "death to Jews” in Russian on the building.
'It seems that the initial intention was not to target local Jews'
Anna Colin Lebedev is a specialist in post-Soviet societies and a lecturer at the University of Paris-Nanterre.
These incidents occurred in reaction to the current situation in Israel and Gaza. It seems that the initial intention was not to target local Jews. For example, there were no incidents reported in Derbent, in Dagestan, where there is a large Jewish community.
In most cases, the mobs said they were looking for "Israelis". In the case of the graffiti sprayed on the Jewish cultural centre, the term used to refer to Jews was "yahud", which is an Arabic term. Arabic is not a language used in the region. However, there has been a mixing of the terms “Jews” and “Israelis” in the discourse. So, in the end, there is a blurring between opposition to Israel and anti-Semitism.
In general, it is hard to know how widespread anti-Semitism is in Russia. To know that, there would have to be a record of anti-Semitic acts, but that’s not the case. That said, I haven’t heard of any major anti-Semitic actions in recent years.
Moreover, the Jewish communities in the Caucasus spoke out after the incidents, saying that they had lived peacefully up until now and that they didn’t want that to change. Jewish people are native to this region, but there aren’t many of them. There are less than one thousand Jewish people in Dagestan, for example, out of three million residents, according to the latest census. In Russia, Jews are considered an ethnic, not religious, group.
After these incidents, the Russian government said that the riots at the airport had been organised on the Telegram channel "Utro Daghestan" [Editor’s note: the channel has since been shut down]. The people in the channel are very clear about their solidarity with Hamas and Palestine, they refer to “our brothers in Hamas”.
That surely played a part, but it is more complicated than that. Aside from the question "who is behind this", you also have to ask the question "how did this happen?"
In Dagestan, there have been a lot of protests in recent years – against the military mobilisation for the war in Ukraine, against Covid restrictions, etc.
Dagestan is a poor region with a pretty low level of education for Russia. There are many young people. And so what’s happening is a sort of dynamic of urban riots sparked by social media.
Russian authorities launched an investigation into public disturbances after the incidents that took place on October 28 and 29. The president of Dagestan indicated that they had been orchestrated "by the enemies of Russia”. The mufti of Dagestan, a Muslim legal expert who can rule on religious matters, called for calm.
Anna Colin Lebedev continued:
After the wars in Chechnya [Editor’s note: the Second Chechen War started in 1999 and ended in 2009], Islam took two different forms in the Caucasus, especially in Chechnya, as shown by the work of my colleagues.
First of all, there is the Islam of the state, which is loyal to Moscow. This is the Islam of the muftis, who have official government roles. But there is also a protest form of Islam that is linked to Islamist movements in Arabic countries. I tend to think that the latest incidents find their roots in this Islam, which is sensitive to the international situation.
There were relatively few arrests at the airport, even though in Russia you can go to prison for a simple social media post.
The people who were arrested were charged with "hooliganism" and "attempt[ing] to disturb public order” and not for “extremist acts” or “inciting racial hatred’’. I think that the security forces who intervened during the riots reacted in an ambiguous manner, uncertain what position to take: should they let the rioters do what they wanted, because Russia did actually receive a visit from a Hamas delegation [Editor’s note: on October 26], even if the people behind these protest movements don’t really seem to have any loyalty to the Kremlin? We’ll need to wait and see what happens within the legal system, but if the government shows signs of letting people get away with this, then we may be seeing other anti-Semitic incidents.
On November 3, Israel told its citizens not to travel abroad because of "an increase in anti-Semitism", while tension related to the Israeli-Palestinian situation grows around the world.
