LEmirati authorities announced Monday the arrest of three Uzbeks suspected of having murdered an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi, a rare incident involving an Israeli citizen in this Gulf state, signatory to a peace agreement with Israel in 2020.
The murder of Tzvi Kogan, 28, who has been missing since Thursday in the Emirates where he was based, particularly affects the country’s Israeli community, whose members remain discreet while regional tensions are exacerbated by the war in Gaza, triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The body of the rabbi was found lifeless on Sunday by the Emirati authorities, sparking indignation in Israel, whose government denounced a “heinous act of anti-Semitic terrorism”.
His remains arrived in Israel on Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Israeli Airports Authority told AFP.
“The competent authorities (…) revealed the identity 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)”, had the official Emirati agency WAM earlier indicated, citing a press release from the Ministry of the Interior.
The security services are now seeking to “elucidate the details, circumstances and motivations of the crime”, the same source added.
On Sunday, authorities in the predominantly Muslim Gulf country said three suspects had been arrested after the rabbi’s killing, without giving details of their identities.
Rabbi Tzvi Kogan was an emissary of Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic movement with a global missionary commitment aimed at strengthening Jewish identity and bringing Jews closer to their faith.
This movement indicated that the rabbi’s funeral would take place this Monday around 11:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. GMT) on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, an area of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967.
The Chief Rabbi of the Emirates Elie Abadie expressed to AFP on Monday the “sadness and shock” of the Jewish community in this Gulf state, 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.
Even before the Emirates announced the arrest of the three suspects, the Israeli government 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.
“Terrorist attack”
In a video broadcast by his services during a council of ministers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also denounced a “despicable anti-Semitic terrorist attack” and promised that his country “will use all means and deal with the murderers of Tzvi Kogan and those who sent them.
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.
Israeli authorities, however, renewed the warning to Israelis to avoid all non-essential travel to the country and advised citizens already there to take additional precautions.
For their part, the United States denounced “a horrible crime against all those who defend peace, tolerance and coexistence”.
Until now extremely discreet in this affair, the Emirati authorities have constantly presented Tzvi 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.
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