Participants of the anti-Israel rally in Cherkessk were fined and warned of criminal liability

The Cherkessk City Court fined several participants in the October 28 rally in support of Palestine in the city center. Then several dozen people with Palestinian flags demanded that Israeli citizens not be allowed into the republic and even declared the need to “evict” all Jews. The court found the participants of the unauthorized rally guilty of violating the “rally” legislation (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). At the same time, there are proposals on republican social networks to repeat the event, coordinating it with the authorities.

At the end of last week, calls began to spread on social networks for residents of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic to gather for a rally in support of Palestine. They did not indicate the organizers of the action, but Kommersant’s sources claim that the calls were published by the Telegram channel “Morning of Dagestan”, and screenshots from it were sent in the WhatsApp messenger, which is more popular in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic.

On Saturday evening, several dozen people actually came out to the square near the Government House of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic in Cherkessk. They were mostly women, and many were wearing hijabs. The men stood in the back rows, periodically shouting “Allahu Akbar” in unison. Some rally participants held Palestinian flags; Children were also brought to the square and given posters in support of Palestine.

Social networks said there were 500 protesters, but the police said that no more than 80 people gathered in the square. Moreover, some of them were ordinary passers-by who “out of curiosity came up to see what was happening.”

Several protesters said on camera that they “don’t want to live next door to Jews” so as not to “get another Palestine.” “We appeal to the government of our republic with a request to protect us from people coming to us from Israel, and we are ready to adopt Palestinians,” said one of the active participants in the action. Another turned to the President of the Russian Federation, asking him to “pay attention to Karachay-Cherkessia” because “you have no idea what’s going on here.” Her words were met with applause and shouts of “Allahu Akbar.” The participants themselves filmed everything that was happening on their phones, promising to send it “to all cities.” An employee of the republic’s administration came out to the protesters, and the participants asked whether the authorities could “help evict the Jews” from the republic. At the official’s suggestion to “choose a senior person” to talk, they shouted from the crowd that “everyone is senior.” The negotiations had no effect, but after a while everyone dispersed on their own, and only the most active participants in the rally were detained by the police. Protocols were drawn up against them for participating in an unauthorized event (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) and were released to go home. On October 30 and 31, the Cherkessk City Court considered the administrative cases of the detainees.

Several protesters received fines ranging from 15 thousand to 20 thousand rubles, Kommersant was told in court, but they could not name the exact number of those fined.

The city police reported that those fined were warned: in the event of a repeat unauthorized rally, they would be subject to criminal liability. Note, Art. 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity) provides for up to five, and in the case of calls for violence and actions as part of an organized group, up to six years in prison. After these warnings, proposals appeared in some Telegram channels to “choose a competent coordinator” who would “apply for an authorized rally” on the same topic, “inviting representatives of the clergy, eminent persons, and authorities.”

The mayor’s office of Cherkessk could not promptly answer whether such an appeal had been received to them. The authorities and clergy of the republic condemned the demands of the protesters. “We categorically do not support such statements (about the eviction of Jews and the ban on entry to Israeli citizens.— “Kommersant”). This is contrary to the spirit of the Islamic religion and the traditions of the peoples of the North Caucasus. Anti-Semitism has no place in the multinational North Caucasus,” the Coordination Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus emphasized. The head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Rashid Temrezov, called on citizens not to succumb to provocations. There are those, he warned, “who are ready to use the sincere feelings of people in their own interests, the goal of which is to destabilize the socio-political situation in our country and in the North Caucasus in particular.”

Alexandra Larintseva, Pyatigorsk