Three Uzbeks held in UAE over Israeli rabbi’s murder

Emirati authorities said Monday three suspects from Uzbekistan were in custody over the murder of a rabbi, a rare violent incident involving an Israeli citizen in the UAE, as his body was flown to Israel for burial.

The United Arab Emirates signed a peace agreement with Israel in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

Tzvi Kogan’s death was a blow to the tiny Jewish and Israeli communities in the Muslim-majority UAE, which has kept a lower profile since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023.

The 28-year-old UAE-based rabbi was found dead by security services last week, following what Israeli officials and an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group he was affiliated with called an anti-Semitic attack.

The three suspects were arrested on Sunday, and after “preliminary investigations” the interior ministry identified them in a statement.

“The authorities revealed the identities of the three perpetrators, all of whom are Uzbek nationals,” said the statement published Monday by the official WAM news agency.

It named them as Olimboy Tohirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33.

The ministry said authorities were taking “the necessary actions to uncover the details, circumstances and motives of the crime”.

– ‘Crime against the UAE’ –

Kogan was in the UAE as a representative of the Chabad Hasidic movement, which is known for its outreach efforts worldwide.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s airport authority confirmed to AFP that his body had been flown home.

Kogan’s funeral will take place late Monday on the Mount of Olives in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned “the murder of an Israeli citizen and a Chabad emissary”, calling it “an abhorrent anti-Semitic terrorist attack”.

In Washington, the White House urged accountability for the “horrific crime”.

Neither Emirati nor Israeli officials provided any details about the circumstances of Kogan’s murder.

In 2020, the year Israel normalised relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, Kogan joined his older brother Reuven and a team of rabbis in the UAE, according to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Chabad said on its website Kogan had managed a kosher supermarket in Dubai, which an AFP photographer said was closed Monday with its window blinds down.

There is no figure for the number of Jews in the UAE, but an Israeli official has told AFP there were about 2,000 Israelis in the Gulf country, with the Jewish community estimated to be up to twice that figure.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash insisted Sunday the country remained “a society of tolerance and coexistence”, in a post on social media platform X that made no direct reference to Kogan.

– Low profile –

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, said that “Kogan’s murder was more than a crime in the UAE — it was a crime against the UAE”.

“We reject extremism and fanaticism of every kind,” he posted on X.

The oil-rich Gulf state, whose population is made up mainly of expatriates, opened its first official synagogue within an interfaith centre in its capital Abu Dhabi last year to cater to the small but active Jewish community that had previously prayed in private.

A senior UAE rabbi, Elie Abadie, condemned Kogan’s death as a “tragic and terrorist act” and eulogised him as “an exemplary human being”.

“This tragic and terrorist act of murdering an innocent Jew is an affront to the entire Jewish community and the peaceful coexistence in the UAE,” Abadie told AFP.

Israel renewed a warning for Israelis to avoid any non-essential travel to the UAE, and advised citizens already there to take extra precautions.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu said in a statement on X that “we mourn the tragic loss” of Kogan and “strongly condemn this hateful act”.

“Our thoughts are with his family, the Jewish community, and all who grieve,” she said.