An Israeli rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been found murdered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday, denouncing his death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act.”
Zvi 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 Thursday.
“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the prime minister’s statement said.
Kogan’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 an English-language interview in Dubai. 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 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.
Kara said Kogan’s body would be sent to Israel for burial after the UAE finished investigating. Emirati and Israeli authorities have not said who was involved in the killing nor what the motive might have been.
The UAE state news agency said on Saturday the interior ministry was investigating Kogan’s disappearance, but the foreign ministry did not comment on Sunday’s news that the body of Kogan, who also held Moldovan citizenship, had been discovered.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, posted on social media on Sunday that the UAE would remain an “oasis of stability, a society of tolerance and coexistence,” without making direct reference to Kogan’s murder.
Meanwhile, 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.
