Rabbi Kogan’s Murder, European Pogroms Challenge Israeli Foreign Relations
On Monday, Nov. 25, United Arab Emirates officials released the names and photographs of three Uzbek nationals arrested for the murder of Chabad Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan.
The Israel intelligence agency Mossad had been working with UAE security authorities since Thursday, Nov. 21, after Kogan — a duel Israeli-Moldovan citizen who lived in Abu Dhabi — was reported missing in Dubai. His abandoned car and body were later found on Sunday, 93 miles away in the Emirati city of Al Ain near the Omani border.
Initial investigations pinned the abduction and murder on three Uzbek nationals operating on orders from Iran. They were suspected to have fled to Turkey following the discovery of Kogan’s body. UAE Ministry of Interior officials have not yet released information on their arrests or possible motives for the murder. Israeli news reported on Nov. 25 that the operation to find and arrest the suspects involved several countries in the region and that they were likely extradited from Turkey to the UAE without Israeli involvement.
The 28-year-old rabbi had been living in Abu Dhabi since 2020 after Israel and the UAE normalized diplomatic relations as part of President Trump’s Abraham Accords. This partnership saw Dubai and Abu Dhabi flourish as popular destinations for Israeli tourists.
Chabad Lubavitch is a movement and organization within the Hasidic branch of Orthodox Judaism that works to support Jewish life around the world and evangelize to secular Jews. Kogan — one of several emissaries to the Abu Dhabi Chabad branch — worked to establish a safe and comfortable life for Jewish residents and tourists in the UAE, managed the kosher grocery store Rimon Market on Dubai’s bustling Al Wasl Road, and opened the first Jewish education center in the UAE. “Everybody loved him,” an Israeli expat in the Abu Dhabi Chabad community said of Kogan. “No matter what background you had, if you were religious, not-religious, everyone had a connection to Zvi.”
His disappearance and suspected murder by Iranian operatives over the weekend sparked reactions from Israeli and Chabad officials. “We trust that the UAE will work with the countries in the region to bring the perpetrators to justice and hold all those involved accountable for this act of sheer evil,” Chabad chairman Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the incident “a vile, antisemitic attack” and thanked UAE for taking “swift action” in their investigations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the murder “a criminal antisemitic terrorist incident” and pledged that the State of Israel “will act in all of its abilities to bring to justice the criminals responsible for his death.” “None of them will be spared,” Netanyahu declared at a cabinet meeting on Nov. 25.
Emirati authorities told Israeli news outlets that the country’s leadership was angry and shocked: “It happened after years when there wasn’t an unusual security or nationalistic incident.”
Kogan is survived by his wife Rivky, an American citizen and niece of the murdered rabbi in the 2008 terrorist attack at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai, India. The plane carrying Kogan’s body touched down at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on the evening of Nov. 25, and he was laid to rest later that night among other deceased rabbis on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
The murder tops off a month of increased threats and violence against Israelis abroad. The unpopularity of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has made Israeli nationals and people of the Jewish faith targets of assaults, violence, and antisemitism by pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli protestors across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
On Nov. 8, Israeli fans were attacked by a mob in Amsterdam after a soccer match between the Dutch team Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Witnesses reported a mob of young people tracking down the Israeli fans after leaving the stadium and violently assaulting them on the street. Videos showed people being thrown into the canals and a taxi jumping the sidewalk to run over an Israeli. Commentators have labeled the incident a “pogrom” after reports surfaced that the Amsterdam police ignored early warnings of potential violence and were complicit in allowing the mob to carry out the attack. (READ MORE: ‘Pogrom’ in Amsterdam)
A flood of social media posts hinted at similar attacks on upcoming Israeli sports events in Europe and prompted the Israeli National Security Council (NSC) to issue travel warnings as scores of Israeli fans were gearing up to support their teams. Particular caution was advised for upcoming soccer matches in France where strong anti-Israeli sentiment stems from President Macron’s fierce condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza.
On Nov. 12, the NSC also urged citizens to maintain increased vigilance while traveling to Thailand as local police reportedly cautioned of a terror threat on Israeli tourists attending the Full Moon party on the island of Ko Pha-ngan. Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Israelis, and thousands often vacation during the Full Moon festival. Over the weekend, travel warnings to southeast Asia were raised to Level 2 — recommending travelers to take increased precautionary measures — based on “the persistence of the threat.”
In the early morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 24, a gunman opened fire near the heavily fortified Israeli Embassy in Ammon, Jordan. Three Jordanian police officers were injured while taking down the gunman, and Jordanian Communications Minister Mohamed Momani called the shooting a terror attack on security patrols near the embassy.
Although the Israeli embassy in Ammon has been the flashpoint for some of the largest anti-Israel protests in the region since the outbreak of war, the two countries continue to maintain good relations. Equally, officials in Jerusalem were quick to acknowledge the close ties and cooperation established between Israel and the UAE that facilitated bringing Kogan’s perpetrators to justice. In the aftermath, Netanyahu pledged to “strengthen our ties [with the UAE] in the face of the attempts from the axis of evil to damage the peaceful relations between us.”
The Amsterdam pogroms and Kogan’s murder opened a new theater in Israel’s multi-front war as Iranian operatives and anti-Israeli mobs expanded the battlefield to include tourists and foreign nationals. The resiliency of the Abraham Accords and strong relations with strategic partners may be Israel’s best defense in combating attacks on its nationals abroad.
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