UAE arrests three suspects in killing of Israeli rabbi

JERUSALEM/DUBAI – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have arrested three people suspected of murdering an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in the Gulf country, the Emirati Interior Ministry said on Nov 24.

A ministry statement did not give further details on the suspects but said the ministry would use “all legal powers to respond decisively and without leniency to any actions or attempts that threaten societal stability”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier on Nov 24 denounced the killing of Rabbi Zvi Kogan as a “heinous anti-Semitic terrorist act”, adding that Israel would do everything it could to bring those responsible to justice.

Rabbi Kogan, who worked in the UAE for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, which seeks to support Jewish life for thousands of Jewish visitors and residents in the Gulf Arab state, vanished in Dubai on Nov 21. His body was found on Nov 24.

He had entered the UAE on his Moldovan passport and was a resident there, said the UAE statement, which was published by the state news agency.

The rabbi’s body was found in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, though it is not clear if he was killed there or elsewhere, former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara told Reuters in Dubai.

Mr Kara said he was waiting for the UAE to finish an investigation, but blamed Iran for the murder.

“The one enemy (Israel has) today is the terror and Iran that supports the terror. The indication that we have now is this is the direction of the investigation,” said Mr Kara, a member of Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud party who works to promote economic relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Mr Kara said Rabbi Kogan's body would be sent to Israel for burial after the UAE finished investigating.

The Israeli authorities reissued their recommendation against all non-essential travel to the UAE and said visitors now there should minimise movement, remain in secure areas and avoid visiting places associated with Israel and Jewish populations.

UAE Jewish community in ‘shock’

The UAE’s Israeli and Jewish community has grown more visible since 2020, when the country became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a US-brokered agreement, dubbed the Abraham Accords.

The UAE has maintained the relationship during the 13-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

However, the public presence of Israelis and Jews in the UAE has appeared to recede since the devastating Hamas cross-border attack on Israeli communities of Oct 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza conflict, which has sparked protests worldwide.

Mr Kara said the UAE’s Jewish community was in “shock” at the news of Rabbi Kogan’s murder, but that Israelis and Jews would still visit and build ties in the Gulf country.

“I am sure that lots of Jewish (people) will continue to invest here. No way to stop this relationship and this cooperation,” said Mr Kara, who is not Jewish and is a member of Israel’s Druze minority.

Jewish community members in the UAE told Reuters that informal synagogues in Dubai were closed after the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel over security concerns, with Jews instead gathering to pray at home.

The one government-approved synagogue in the UAE remains open in Abu Dhabi, the capital. There are no official synagogues in Dubai, the UAE’s biggest city and commercial hub.

There are no official statistics on the number of Jews or Israelis living in the country, but estimates from Jewish groups suggest the community numbers in the several thousand. REUTERS