Israel denounces murder of rabbi after body found in UAE

reuters_tickers

JERUSALEM/DUBAI (Reuters) -An Israeli rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found murdered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday, denouncing his death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act”.

Zvi Kogan, who worked in the UAE for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, which seeks to support Jewish life for thousands of Jewish visitors and residents in the Gulf Arab state, vanished in Dubai on Thursday.

“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the prime minister’s statement said.

Kogan’s body was found in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, though it is not clear if he was killed there or elsewhere, former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara told Reuters in an English-language interview in Dubai.

Kara said he was waiting for the UAE to finish an investigation, but blamed Iran for the murder.

“The one enemy (Israel has) today is the terror and Iran that supports the terror. The indication that we have now is this is the direction of the investigation,” said Kara, a member of Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud party who works to promote economic relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Kara said Kogan’s body would be sent to Israel for burial after the UAE finished investigating.

Emirati and Israeli authorities have not said who was involved in the killing nor what the motive might have been.

The UAE state news agency said on Saturday the interior ministry was investigating Kogan’s disappearance but the foreign ministry did not comment on Sunday’s news that the body of Kogan, who also held Moldovan citizenship, had been discovered.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, posted on social media on Sunday that the UAE would remain an “oasis of stability, a society of tolerance and coexistence”, without making direct reference to Kogan’s murder.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities reissued their recommendation against all non-essential travel to the UAE and said visitors now there should minimise movement, remain in secure areas and avoid visiting places associated with Israel and Jewish populations.

UAE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN ‘SHOCK’

The UAE’s Israeli and Jewish community has grown more visible since 2020 when the country became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a U.S.-brokered agreement, dubbed the Abraham Accords.

The UAE has maintained the relationship during the 13-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

However, the public presence of Israelis and Jews in the UAE has appeared to recede since the devastating Hamas cross-border attack on Israeli communities of Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the Gaza conflict, which has sparked protests worldwide.

Kara said the UAE’s Jewish community was in “shock” at the news of Kogan’s murder, but that Israelis and Jews would still visit and build ties in the Gulf country.

“I am sure that lots of Jewish (people) will continue to invest here. No way to stop this relationship and this cooperation,” said Kara, who is not Jewish and is a member of Israel’s Druze minority.

Jewish community members in the UAE told Reuters informal synagogues in Dubai were closed after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault over security concerns, with Jews instead gathering to pray at home.

The one government-approved synagogue in the UAE remains open in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. There are no official synagogues in Dubai, the UAE’s biggest city and commercial hub.

There are no official statistics on the number of Jews or Israelis living in the country, but estimates from Jewish groups suggest the community numbers in the several thousand.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Menna Alaa El Din, Andrew Mills, Alexander Cornwell and Parisa Hafezi; editing by Maha El Dahan, Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Heinrich)