Russian Rabbi asks Kremlin to punish mob who stormed airport to 'catch' Jews

investing.com:

By Andrew Osborn and Filipp Lebedev

(Reuters) -A senior Russian Rabbi on Monday urged the Kremlin to ensure that rioters in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region who stormed an airport to «catch» Jewish passengers on board a flight from Tel Aviv were harshly punished.

Videos obtained by Reuters from the airport at Makhachkala, the regional capital of Dagestan, showed the rioters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport on Sunday evening shouting «Allahu Akbar» or «God is Greatest».

One group was seen trying to overturn a police patrol truck, while another video showed rioters on the tarmac surrounding a Red Wings aircraft which had arrived from Tel Aviv.

One placard brandished by rioters in an unverified social media post said: «There is no place for child killers in Dagestan.»

Another said: «We are against Jewish refugees.»

Shmuel, 26, an Israeli citizen and one of the passengers, told Israeli publication Ynet that police had got passengers onto a bus which was then chased around the airport by rioters who even boarded it at one stage.

«The bus kept turning around...and people were chasing it and throwing stones. I put my suitcase against the window,» he said.

«At one point, hundreds of people came and stopped the bus. They came inside, went from person to person, and asked if they were a Muslim or a Jew. I said I was a Muslim, because I was scared to death. Fortunately, they believed me and continued on,» he said.

Rabbi Alexander Boroda, the president of Russia's Federation of Jewish Communities, called for a tough response.

In a statement, Boroda said that the riot had «undermined the basic foundations of our multi-cultural and multi-national state»