{"id":509025,"date":"2026-01-11T17:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/509025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T17:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:59:13","slug":"israeli-reportedly-held-for-nine-days-in-dubai-due-to-mistaken-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/509025\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli reportedly held for nine days in Dubai due to mistaken identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Israeli man was jailed in Dubai for nine days in a case of mistaken identity after local authorities believed he owed money for a rental car, according to a Sunday report.<\/p>\n<p>The man, who was not named, had flown from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi for a connecting flight to Cambodia, Ynet reported.<\/p>\n<p>But as soon as he arrived, the police arrested him and took him to Dubai, accusing him of owing a sum of money to a car rental company from a previous visit to the city. Local authorities pointed to his name and date of birth, which matched those of the man they were seeking.<\/p>\n<p>Though the man insisted he had never been to Dubai before, local authorities jailed him. Only after nine days did it emerge that he had the same personal details as another Israeli who did owe money. According to the report, the man does not have a particularly unusual name.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as the error was confirmed, he was released from jail, and Dubai authorities offered to pay for a new flight to complete his connection to Cambodia, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The man is now considering suing for damages over negligence.<\/p>\n<p>His attorney, Mordechai Tzivin, who represents Israelis held abroad, panned Israel\u2019s Foreign Ministry and Dubai consulate, saying they \u201ccompletely failed in the substantive and technical treatment of the Israeli.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ministry did not make a satisfactory effort to help the local police and to prove\u2026 that there was a mistake in identity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Israeli consul in Dubai only visited the man on his last day in jail, even though, Tzivin said, ministry procedures are to visit a detainee as soon as possible after learning of an arrest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt became clear that, for the most part, requests for help from Knesset members, ministers, community leaders, well-connected fixers in the public system\u2026 are useless, complicate the matter, and cause families despair,\u201d Tzivin said, referring to other efforts by the Israeli man\u2019s relatives to see him freed.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Tzivin told Ynet that he was sure right from the start that his client would eventually be released by Dubai due to the \u201chigh level of fairness in the law enforcement system, and human rights also in the Dubai prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tIs accurate Israel coverage important to you?\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>If so, we have a request.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every day during the past two years of war and rising global anti-Zionism and antisemitism, our journalists kept you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Israeli man was jailed in Dubai for nine days in a case of mistaken identity after local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":509026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-509025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115877771195828533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}