Israel PM Netanyahu Lays Wreath for Operation Entebbe

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara have laid a wreath near the memorial sign for Operation Entebbe, which is posted on the control tower at Entebbe Airport.

“This is the fifth time that I am standing in this place, a few meters from where my brother Yoni fell,” said Netanyahu.

“This always causes waves of emotion, of longing and of pride,” he added.

The Entebbe raid was a rescue operation by an Israeli commando squad of 103 hostages from a French jet airliner hijacked en route from Israel to France.

After stopping at Athens, the airliner was hijacked on June 27 by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Red Army Faction (a West German radical leftist group) and flown to Entebbe, Uganda, where they were joined by additional accomplices.

At Entebbe, the hijackers freed those of the 258 passengers who did not appear to be Israeli or Jewish and held the rest hostage for the release of 53 militants imprisoned in Israel, Kenya, West Germany, and elsewhere.

In response, Israel, on July 3, dispatched four Hercules C-130H cargo planes carrying 100–200 soldiers and escorted by Phantom jet fighters. After flying some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from Israel to Uganda, the Israeli force rescued the hostages within an hour after landing.

All seven of the militants were killed, and 11 MiG fighters supplied to Uganda by the Soviet Union were destroyed; the Israelis lost one soldier, Yoni Netanyahu, the brother of the current Israel Premier, and three hostages during the operation.

Yoni Netanyahu

Yoni Netanyahu

Speaking after laying the wreath on Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu recalled: “When my wife and I came here with our two sons on one of the visits, President Museveni arranged a memorial ceremony here for the soldier who fell, which was truly incredibly moving. Afterwards in the tent on the side, I asked him – it was unusual to establish here a memorial to a foreign unit that entered by force, and also took the lives of many Ugandan soldiers.”

Museveni responded: “I want you to understand the significance of the operation. We fought Idi Amin, who slaughtered 500,000 Ugandans. We were in the jungle and we heard about the raid on Entebbe and we understood then that it is possible to defeat evil.”

Netanyahu said “this is what the memorial behind me says, that with courage, strength of spirit and heroism, it is possible to overcome any evil. I think that this is what Entebbe symbolizes and this is what, to a large degree, symbolized Yoni’s life and death.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife then took their leave from the Ugandan Prime Minister and his wife. Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked them for the visit and the warm welcome.