‘We Are Here for the Jews’: Russian Muslims Storm Airport Looking for Israeli Flight

Dozens of Russians were detained by police after hundreds of residents from the predominantly Muslim enclave of Dagestan stormed a local airport on Sunday night amid rumors that a flight carrying Jews from Israel was set to land.

Footage circulating on social media showed a mob storming an airport in Makhachkala, the region’s capital, waving Palestinian flags, demanding to know where the “Jews” were hiding as chants of “Allahu Akbar” rang throughout the terminal. “We are here for the Jews. We came to kill them with knives and shoot at them,” a rioter captured in a video seen by the Jerusalem Post reportedly chanted.

Another video appears to show a man encircled by a crowd demanding to see his passport and search his phone to ensure he is not obscuring his Jewish identity. Despite saying that he is from Uzbekistan, people in the mob insist the man is a Jew. “Are you trying to f***ing mess with us here, b****?” one protester says to the man surrounded by dozens of people.

A passenger on the flight from Israel told the BBC that he was permitted to leave after rioters assured him, “We are not touching non-Jews today.”

The Israeli government demanded that Russian law enforcement ensure “the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.” The message was echoed by Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman, who underscored, “The U.S. unequivocally stands with the entire Jewish community as we witness a worldwide surge in antisemitism. There is never any excuse or justification for antisemitism.”

Throughout Dagestan and neighboring Russian provinces, people began searching for Jews and Israelis. In Khasavyurt, a town an hour’s drive from Makhachkala, locals surrounded a hotel demanding to know where Israelis were hiding.

“I went into every room, I checked every person. I looked at the passport, looked at the face to see if this face corresponded to the passport. There are no [Jews] there, brothers, you are simply being provoked. We need to go home. Well done to everyone who came, you’re all caring,” Russian radio station Echo FM reported a rioter saying.

In Nalchik, a town in the Russian republic Kabardino-Balkaria, a Jewish community center was set on fire.

Last week, as tensions between Israel and Hamas ratcheted up, Russian president Vladimir Putin downplayed the level of antisemitism in the country and blamed Western leaders for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “We have not seen anti-Semitism on a state level for many years, and there is hardly any anti-Semitism on the streets either,” Putin said after meeting with various religious groups.

However, the Russian lynch mob drew the condemnation of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who called the mob “part of Russia’s widespread culture of hatred toward other nations, which is propagated by state television, pundits, and authorities.”

“The Russian foreign minister has made a series of antisemitic remarks in the last year. The Russian President also used antisemitic slurs. For Russian propaganda talking heads on official television, hate rhetoric is routine,” Zelensky wrote on X. “Even the most recent Middle East escalation prompted antisemitic statements from Russian ideologists. Russian antisemitism and hatred toward other nations are systemic and deeply rooted. Hatred is what drives aggression and terror. We must all work together to oppose hatred.”

Local authorities attempted to defuse the situation and denounced the rioters. “There is no honor in hurling abuse at strangers, searching their pockets looking for their passports!” Dagestan’s governor, Sergey Melikov, wrote in a message on Telegram, a social-media platform. “What happened at our airport is outrageous and should receive the appropriate assessment from law enforcement. This will be done.”