Israel said Sunday that the body of of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what the government described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”
The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.”
Zvi Kogan went missing on Thursday, and there were suspicions he had been kidnapped.
His disappearance comes as Iran has been threatening to retaliate against Israel after the two countries traded fire in October.
The Emirati government gave no immediate acknowledgment that Kogan had been found dead.
Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is a U.S. citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She’s the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism, said Kogan was last seen in Dubai. A video circulating on social media showed him earlier in the week at a Kosher grocery store in the city-state. The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that he managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday.
The Chabad Lubavitch movement also described Kogan as being an emissary of the branch, which is based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York.
Early Sunday, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being “missing and out of contact.”
“Specialized authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.
The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.
Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
The UAE diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020. Since then, Israelis have come to the UAE to set up businesses and vacation. Emirati airlines have been a key link for Israel to the rest of the world as other carriers have stopped flying to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv amid the wars.
The UAE also has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners. However, the Mideast wars have sparked deep anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals from other states and others living in the UAE.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
