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A mob of angry, antisemitic protestors stormed a Russian airport tarmac to decry a flight touching down from Israel — and the whole thing proved to be incredibly dangerous.
This wild scene unfolded Sunday in the city of Makhachkala — which is the capital of a predominantly Muslim region in Russia known as the Dagestan region … and where a massive crowd literally broke into Makhachkala Uytash Airport and bombarded the runway.
The reason we know they’re antisemitic as opposed to just being anti-Israel — several of the mob members were carrying signs that explicitly called out Jews … in a hateful way.
One sign reportedly read, “We are against Jewish refugees” and another “There is no place for child killers in Dagestan.” These folks weren’t just there to peacefully demonstrate either — apparently, they surrounded the plane once it landed … and were itching for violence.
The situation was so volatile, that the pilot and crew refused to let anyone off … basically waiting for airport security and local police to deal with them, which they eventually did. There were clashes with authorities and the protesters … and left at least 10 people injured.
Unclear how many arrests came from this … but the airport was finally able to resume operations on Monday. In the meantime, other flights had to be diverted — the airport was inaccessible. The Kremlin says Putin was being briefed on the matter as it was happening.
Russian state media chalked it up to people who “gathered to oppose the Palestinian-Israel conflict” — but this clearly was far beyond that and descended into something very ugly.
Of course, this all comes at a time of increased activity in the Middle East itself. Israel is moving in on Gaza in an attempt to find and wipe out the Hamas terrorists that carried out the Oct. 7 attack … while trying to find and safely secure hundreds of hostages.