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Russian Court Sentences Five Men for Antisemitic Riots at Dagestan Airport
Makhachkala airport, Dagestan, Russia, Oct. 31, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev
A court in southern Russia on Friday sentenced five men to more than six years in prison each in the first convictions related to a mass anti-Israel, antisemitic protest last October at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.
The men, who were given sentences ranging from just over six years to nine years for engaging in rioting, did not admit guilt, the court in the Krasnodar region said. One protester was also found guilty of committing violence against a government official.
The trial was moved from Dagestan to Krasnodar due to the sensitivity of the case.
Last October hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived in a spate of unrest in the North Caucasus over Israel‘s war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Video footage showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors, and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater).
The crowd converged on the airport after a message on a local Telegram channel urged Dagestanis to meet the “uninvited guests” in “adult fashion” and to get the plane and its passengers to turn around and fly somewhere else.
The channel, which was later banned by Telegram, did not use the word “Jew” but referred to the plane’s passengers as being “unclean.”
The incident was part of a wave of antisemitic demonstrations and attacks against Jewish institutions across Russia’s north Caucus region following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
In the airport riot, more than 20 people were injured before security forces could contain the unrest. No passengers on the plane were hurt.
Police arrested dozens of people, whose cases are now making their way through Russian courts.
President Vladimir Putin blamed the West and Ukraine for the unrest, without providing evidence. Kyiv denied any role and the United States strongly condemned the violence.
The post Russian Court Sentences Five Men for Antisemitic Riots at Dagestan Airport first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds
Jan Bart (1919-1971) began his career as a cantor, but became a popular entertainer and Yiddish recording artist who dedicated his career to raising funds for Israel.
Bart was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1930. He had a long-running radio program in the New York area, appeared on the Milton Berle television show and starred in the Yiddish film Catskill Honeymoon. One of Bart’s best-selling records was Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.
When the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, Bart dedicated his life and talents to raising funds for the new country. He started by pleading into a megaphone from the back of an open station wagon that the existence of Israel was central to the survival of the Jewish people, and that funds were desperately needed.
When the Israel Bonds program was initiated in 1951, he was asked to sing at the first meeting in Miami. He combined songs and stories with his gift as a fundraiser resulting in events that regularly raised double and sometimes triple the expected return. Over a 20-year period, he appeared at more than 2,200 Israel Bond events in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia and raised more money for Israel than any other entertainer.
Bart toured with his wife Lillian, who was also an accomplished singer. In November 1965, the Barts toured Toronto with Israel Bonds which arranged a performance at almost every synagogue and organization in the city.
During a 22-day visit, they gave 30 performances for multiple Bnai Brith lodges and synagogues, including Shaarei Shomayim, Beth Emeth-Bais Yehuda, Beth Sholom, Clanton Park, Shaarei Tefillah and Beth Tzedec, as well as for groups like Pioneer Women, Hadassah and Mizrachi and several mutual benefit societies.
At the end of the tour, the Barts received a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and letters “in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the 1965 State of Israel Bond Campaign in Toronto through their magnificent interpretation of the lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof and their heart-warming message conveyed to every organization and synagogue in the Jewish community of Toronto.”
The way that the Toronto Jewish community united 60 years ago is an example for us today.
The scrapbook has recently been donated to the Ontario Jewish Archives by the Barts’ daughter, Judy Bart Kancigor, a California-based food journalist and the author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family.
The post Treasure Trove remembers the entertaining Jan and Lillian Bart, top fundraisers for Israel Bonds appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp
Illustrative. Palestinian demonstrators call for an end to clashes between Palestinian security forces and terrorists in Jenin, in the West Bank, Dec. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
i24 News – The Palestinian Authority on Friday reached an agreement with the jihadists of the Jenin Battalion, ending a six-week standoff in the northern West Bank terror hotbed.
The Jenin Battalion is a local jihadist militia affiliated with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The PA’s engineering and civil defense crews will begin dismantling explosives planted across Jenin, Palestinian media reported.
A Palestinian security source told i24NEWS that not a single weapon has been handed over by the Jenin Battalion to PA security forces.
The post PA Security Forces End Standoff with Jenin Battalion, Enter West Bank Camp first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Hamas violated the terms of its agreement with Israel even before the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out on Saturday.
The jihadist group failed to submit to Israel the names of the three hostages slated to be freed on Sunday, in contravention to the terms of the ceasefire stipulating that this information be communicated 24 hours in advance.
“We will not move forward with the outline until we receive the list of hostages to be released, as agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement,” Netanyahu said some three hours after the names should have been submitted. “The sole responsibility lies with Hamas.”
The post With Hamas Yet to Name 3 First Hostages to Be Released, Netanyahu Slams Violation of Agreement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.