After the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in the United Arab Emirates, the authorities announced on Monday that the alleged murderers were of Uzbek nationality, the official WAM agency reported, without specifying the circumstances of the murder.
“The competent authorities of the security services revealed the identities of the three people who carried out the murder and who are of Uzbek nationality: Olimbay Tohirovich (28 years old), Makhmudjon Abdurakhim (28 years old) and Azizbek Kamilovich (33 years old),” WAM wrote, citing a press release from the Interior Ministry.
What happened?
The body of Zvi Kogan, 28, who had been missing since Thursday in the Emirates where he was based, was found lifeless on Sunday by the Emirati authorities, sparking indignation in Israel. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said she hoped the remains would be repatriated Monday for burial in Israel.
The Mossad, the powerful Israeli foreign intelligence service, has opened an investigation, Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday, announcing the disappearance of the rabbi. He was already mentioning the “terrorist” idea, which he did not, however, substantiate.
Who is the victim?
Authorities in the predominantly Muslim Gulf country said on Sunday that three suspects had been arrested after the murder of the 28-year-old rabbi. Married for six months according to Israeli media, Rabbi Zvi Kogan was an emissary of Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic movement with global missionary commitment aimed at strengthening Jewish identity and bringing Jews closer to their faith.
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. That year, Zvi Kogan joined his older brother Reuven and a team of rabbis from the Chabad Lubavitch group in the United Arab Emirates. According to this movement, the rabbi managed a kosher supermarket in Dubai, opening in 2022.
What are the international reactions?
Even before the announcement of these arrests, the Israeli government had denounced “a heinous act of anti-Semitic terrorism”. “Israel will use all means at its disposal to ensure that justice is done and that those responsible for his death are held accountable,” he said in a statement. For its part, the United States denounced “a horrible crime against all those who defend peace, tolerance and coexistence”, via a press release from the White House.
Our file on the Middle East
Until now extremely discreet in this affair, the Emirati authorities have constantly presented Zvi Kogan as a Moldovan citizen, hiding his Israeli nationality. A federation of seven emirates tightly controlled by the ruling family, the Emirates pride themselves on being a tolerant and safe country. Elie Abadie, Chief Rabbi of the Emirates, expressed to AFP on Monday the “sadness and shock” of the Jewish community, adding that the law must be applied with “all its rigor” against the perpetrators. “This tragic and terrorist act of murder of an innocent Jew is an affront to the entire Jewish community and to peaceful coexistence in the UAE,” he said.
Is the Jewish community in the Emirates large?
This murder particularly affects the Israeli community, whose members remain discreet while regional tensions are exasperated by the war in Gaza. In 2022, the UAE opened its first official synagogue within an interfaith center in Abu Dhabi to meet the needs of the local Jewish community. There is no official figure on the number of Jews in the United Arab Emirates, but the World Jewish Congress estimates that between 500 and 3,000 Jews live there, most of them foreigners. This figure probably fell to the lower end of the range after the start of the war in Gaza.
