What happened in the United Arab Emirates? Emirati authorities have located the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who has been missing in the country since Thursday, the Israeli government announced this Sunday, already evoking a terrorist act without giving further details.
For the moment, the circumstances of Tzvi Kogan’s death remain extremely unclear. Assistant to the Chief Rabbi of the United Arab Emirates, he was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, an ultra-Orthodox movement driven by a global missionary commitment aimed at strengthening Jewish identity and bringing Jews closer to their faith, particularly through its community centers. Having lived in the United Arab Emirates for a long time according to the Israeli press, he has dual Israeli and Moldovan nationality according to the Times of Israel and comes from a family based in Jerusalem.
On Saturday, the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that Tzvi Kogan had disappeared for two days and was already mentioning a “terrorist” trail, without any details having been provided to support it. Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, then opened an investigation. For their part, the Emirati authorities indicated that they had “immediately launched search operations” to find Tzvi Kogan.
The Israeli television channel i24News, which cites the Mossad, raises the possibility of a kidnapping, ordered by Uzbek nationals. According to this media, the man, who lived in Abu Dhabi according to the Times of Israel but worked in Dubai (the neighboring emirate), was allegedly followed by three people when leaving the kosher grocery store he managed. His car was reportedly found on the border between the emirate of Abu Dhabi and Oman.
After the announcement of his death on Sunday, the Israeli government did not provide details on where the body was found, nor on the identity of the suspects. On the other hand, he already mentions the terrorist trail. The rabbi’s murder “is a heinous act of anti-Semitic terrorism,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry said in a joint statement. “The State of Israel will use all means at its disposal to ensure that justice is done and those responsible for his death are held accountable,” they added.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords, promoted by Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
