Israel has pledged to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of a prominent rabbi in the United Arab Emirates, denouncing his killing as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act”.
Zvi Kogan, who ran a Kosher shop in Dubai and worked for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, vanished in Dubai on Thursday.
The 28-year-old’s body was found in the city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, though it is not clear if he was killed there or elsewhere.
The UAE’s interior ministry said three suspects had been arrested, but gave no details.
His disappearance came as Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, had been threatening to retaliate after a wave of airstrikes Israel carried out in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The Iranian embassy in the UAE said it “categorically rejects the allegations of Iran’s involvement in the murder of this individual”.
A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called Kogan’s death a “heinous antisemitic terror incident” and said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death”.
Kogan had entered the UAE on his Moldovan passport and was a resident in Dubai, said the UAE statement. His wife, Rivky, is a US citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Chabad movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism, is based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood in New York.
Jews have grown more visible in the UAE since 2020 when the country became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a US-brokered agreement dubbed the Abraham Accords. Ties have been maintained during the 13-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
However, informal synagogues in Dubai were closed after Hamas’ 7 October assault, with Jews instead gathering to pray at home amid heightened security concerns. A single government-approved synagogue remains open, in Abu Dhabi.
Kogan’s shop was shuttered on Sunday. Outside, Israeli Druze politician Ayoob 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 Mr Kara.
Kogan’s body will be repatriated to Israel “hopefully” on Monday, an Israeli foreign ministry official said.
Although Israel’s public statements on Sunday did not mention Iran, western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, although Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
Additional reporting from Associated Press and Reuters
