Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country would use “all means” to punish those responsible for the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in the United Arab Emirates, killed in a “despicable anti-Semitic terrorist attack”. “The State of Israel will use all means and deal with the murderers of Tzvi Kogan and those who sent them, with the full force of the law,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video released by his services, to the occasion of a council of ministers.
The body of Tzvi Kogan, missing since Thursday in the Emirates where he was based, was found lifeless by the Emirati authorities, said the Prime Minister's Office and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This murder “is a heinous act of anti-Semitic terrorism”, they said in a joint statement, specifying that “the State of Israel will use all means at its disposal to ensure that justice is done and that those responsible for its dead answer for their actions.
“Despicable anti-Semitic attack”
No details were provided on where the body was found, nor on the circumstances of the murder or the identity of the suspects. The Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, has opened an investigation, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, announcing the disappearance of the rabbi and already evoking the “terrorist” trail, without providing any details to support this. track.
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 renewed the warning to Israelis to avoid all non-essential travel to the Gulf country and advised citizens already there to take extra precautions.
“This vile anti-Semitic attack reminds us of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people,” commented Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the social network X. “It will not prevent us from continuing to develop thriving communities in the United Arab Emirates or elsewhere” , he assured. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz denounced, also on X, “a cowardly and despicable anti-Semitic terrorist crime.”
The Emirates are discreet about the drama
Married for six months according to Israeli media, 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. In a message on
For their part, the Emirati authorities have observed extreme discretion regarding 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 Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was in contact with the Emirati authorities “in order to clarify the circumstances of this case”, referring to the disappearance, but not the death, of Tzvi Kogan.
A federation of seven emirates tightly controlled by the ruling family, the Emirates pride themselves on being a tolerant and safe country. The rich oil state, whose overwhelming majority of the population is made up of expatriates, last year inaugurated an interreligious center in the capital, Abu Dhabi, housing a mosque, a church and a synagogue. In Amman, Jordanian authorities also announced on Sunday that a man had been shot dead at dawn after opening fire on security forces in the neighborhood housing the Israeli embassy.
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