{"id":973888,"date":"2026-08-01T16:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/973888\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T16:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:58:12","slug":"yoni-benjamin-netanyahu-memorial-unveiled-in-entebbe-as-50th-anniversary-of-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/973888\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoni Benjamin Netanyahu memorial unveiled in Entebbe as 50th anniversary of operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A memorial honoring Lt.-Col. Yonatan \u201cYoni\u201d Netanyahu<\/a> was unveiled on Saturday at the old terminal of Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where he was killed exactly 50 years earlier during the historic rescue operation, the Kampala Post reported.<\/p>\n

The ceremony was held at the historic site of the old terminal and attended by Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the chief of Uganda\u2019s military, a powerful figure in the country and the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.<\/p>\n

Kainerugaba presented the memorial as a testament to the enduring friendship, security partnership, and mutual trust between Uganda and Israel. He had previously announced plans to erect a memorial at Entebbe Airport<\/a> at the site where Netanyahu was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe unveil the memorial to Lt.-Col. Yonatan \u2018Yoni\u2019 Netanyahu, the courageous commander of the Israeli rescue force, whose leadership and ultimate sacrifice during the Entebbe raid on July 4, 1976, became an enduring symbol of courage, duty, and selfless service,\u201d the military chief said.<\/p>\n

Kainerugaba added that the memorial was not only a tribute to one soldier, but also to the values Netanyahu embodied: courage in the face of danger, a commitment to protecting innocent lives, and complete devotion to duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cMemorials are more than stone and bronze. They preserve memory, teach history, and inspire future generations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kainerugaba also mentioned the hostages who were abducted aboard the Air France flight and killed in connection with Operation Entebbe<\/a>: Jean-Jacques Maimoni of Netanya, who was 19; Dr. Pasco Cohen, a 52-year-old physician from Haifa; Ida Borochovitch, 56, of Tel Aviv; and Dora Bloch, 74.<\/p>\n

He also commemorated the Ugandan soldiers who were killed that day.<\/p>\n

According to Kainerugaba, the government of Idi Amin was a brutal dictatorship that did not represent the Ugandan people, while present-day Uganda is a constitutional democracy committed to international cooperation. Bloch was murdered after the raid<\/a> while she was being held at a hospital in Kampala.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe friendship between Uganda and Israel extends far beyond the events of 1976. The two countries have enjoyed good relations for a long time, based on mutual respect and practical cooperation,\u201d the Ugandan military chief said.<\/p>\n

He pledged that both countries would remain committed to deepening their cooperation.<\/p>\n

The Kampala Post reported that the ceremony was also attended by Israeli national Barak Orland, who lives in Uganda and is regarded there as an informal representative of the State of Israel.<\/p>\n

Orland described the memorial as a testament to two nations standing shoulder to shoulder for the sake of future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A memorial honoring Lt.-Col. Yonatan \u201cYoni\u201d Netanyahu was unveiled on Saturday at the old terminal of Entebbe Airport…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":973889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[390843,99,50,22770,390844,390842],"class_list":["post-973888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-entebbe-rescue-operation","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-uganda","tag-yonatan-netanyahu","tag-yoni-netanyahu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117021318127040588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973888","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=973888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}