UAE arrests three after Israeli rabbi kills

The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday it had arrested three suspects in the killing of an Israeli rabbi, which Israel called an anti-Semitic attack.

“The Ministry of Interior announced that the United Arab Emirates authorities have arrested in record time the three perpetrators involved in the assassination” of Tzvi Kogan, according to a statement sent by the official WAM news agency.

The ministry described Kogan as “a Moldovan citizen according to his identity documents at the time of entry into the United Arab Emirates, where he lived as a resident.”

The body of the 28-year-old rabbi was found by security services in the Gulf state, the Israeli prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry announced earlier on Sunday.

The Israeli-Moldovan national lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates as a representative of the Chabad Hasidic movement, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group known for its global outreach efforts.

The UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020, along with other countries including Bahrain and Morocco.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking about Kogan’s death at the start of a cabinet meeting, said “the killing of an Israeli citizen and a Chabad emissary is an abhorrent anti-Semitic terrorist attack.”

Neither Emirati nor Israeli officials have provided details on the circumstances of Kogan’s killing.

An Israeli official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Kogan’s body could be repatriated on Monday.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement said he would be “buried in Israel.”

– “Great pain” –

In a message on X, the movement expressed its “great pain” alongside a photo of the rabbi, adding that he was “killed by terrorists after being kidnapped on Thursday”.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Kogan’s killing a “vile anti-Semitic attack,” which he said showed “the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people.”

Herzog added in a statement that the murder will not “deter us from continuing to grow thriving (Jewish) communities in the UAE or anywhere.”

Moldova said earlier on Sunday that its embassy in Abu Dhabi is cooperating with local officials and is “closely monitoring the situation, providing the necessary support.”

It only mentioned that Kogan disappeared and did not refer to his death.

Israel renewed a warning for Israelis to avoid any non-essential travel to the United Arab Emirates and advised citizens already in the Gulf country to take extra precautions.

Ayoob Kara, a former Israeli minister involved in promoting ties with Middle Eastern countries, called the killing “a surprise.”

Speaking outside a kosher market in Dubai, which she said was run by Kogan, which was closed on Sunday, Kara told AFP: “Everything is beautiful here, everything is under control here.”

– “Oasis of stability” –

The oil-rich Gulf state, whose population consists mainly of expatriates, last year opened an interfaith center in Abu Dhabi that houses a mosque, a church and a synagogue.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash insisted on Sunday that the country remains “an oasis of stability, a society of tolerance and coexistence”, in a post on X, but made no direct reference to Kogan.

There is no official figure for the number of Jews in the UAE, but the Israeli official said there are about 2,000 Israelis in the UAE, and “the Jewish community is larger”, up to twice that number.

The war in Gaza, sparked by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has sparked growing anger in the Middle East.

In Jordan, a man was killed on Sunday after opening fire on and wounding three members of security forces near the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman, state media said, in an incident described by the government’s spokesman as “terrorist attack”.

Investigations were underway to unravel the circumstances and motives behind the attack.

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