Body of Moldovan-Israeli victim of 'anti-Semitic terrorism' discovered in United Arab Emirates, Israel says

Rabbi Tzvi Kogan had been missing for several days. Local authorities remain discreet in this matter.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities have located the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who has been missing in the country since Thursday, the Israeli government announced on Sunday, November 24. The murder of Tzvi Kogan was described as“heinous act of anti-Semitic terrorism” in a joint statement from the Prime Minister's Office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry, specifying that Israel would do its best “so that justice is done”.

Benjamin Netanyahu's office indicated on Saturday that Tzvi Kogan had disappeared for two days in the United Arab Emirates and was already raising a trail “terrorist”without any details having been provided to support this lead. Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, has opened an investigation, he said.

The Israeli government did not provide details on Sunday about where the body was found or the identities of the suspects. The circumstances of this rabbi's death remain extremely unclear, including in the Israeli media.

Rabbi Tzvi Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, an ultra-Orthodox movement, and he had been living in the United Arab Emirates for a long time, according to the Israeli press. The Emirati authorities have observed extreme discretion over this murder which they have not commented on. On Saturday, they indicated that they had “immediately launched search operations” to find Tzvi Kogan, whom they then presented as Moldovan, without mentioning his Israeli nationality.

The United Arab Emirates prides itself on being a tolerant and safe country. It normalized its relations with Israel as part of 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 Gulf country and advised citizens already there to take additional precautions.