Kirpichenok is rare Israeli to have traveled twice to Iran

Russian-Israeli historian missing after landing at Ben Gurion last week

Artyom Kirpichenok, a left-wing critic of Israel who lives in Russia, arrived to attend conference but hasn’t been seen since; Russian official claims he’s being held by Shin Bet

A Russian-Israeli historian known for his criticism of Israel has disappeared after landing at Ben Gurion Airport last week.

Artyom Kirpichenok, who lives in Russia, came to Israel on August 4 for a conference but hasn’t been seen since getting off the plane, according to Hebrew media reports. Family and friends who have tried to contact him have been unsuccessful.

Russia’s ambassador in Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, has reached out to Israeli authorities about the matter, according to Russian state media. Daria Mitina, a former Russian lawmaker, claimed on Telegram that the Shin Bet intelligence service had taken Kirpichenok into custody.

“Our worst fears have been confirmed… Artem Ivanovich Kirpichenok is in prison, in the hands of the Israeli secret police Shabak,” she wrote, according to Izvestia, a Russian outlet linked to the Kremlin.

Kirpichenok lived in Israel for more than a decade and studied at the Hebrew University. He writes frequently about Israel and has taken a critical tone toward the country, with Haaretz describing him as part of a small left-wing communist faction in Russia that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The outlet reported that he has traveled to Iran twice, an extreme rarity for Israeli citizens. One trip came in 2018, when he published a travel diary. In 2022, he posted online that he had taken a second trip to the Islamic Republic.

“Being an Israeli citizen, it was very interesting to me to see where our bombs would fall, and also to convey information to my countrymen about everyday life in a country that, to Israelis, looks even stranger than the Soviet Union did in the eyes of the Americans in the 1950s,” he wrote of the 2018 trip.

He has recently published several articles about Israel, covering subjects such as Israeli apprehension toward Turkey; a comparison between the treatment of Arab Israelis and Apartheid South Africa; and Israelis’ self-perception in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack. That one was called “The whole world hates us, and we’re proud of it.”