Yonatan Netanyahu - 35 years later

A memorial service took place on Friday to commemorate 35 years since the fall of Lt.-Col. Yonatan Netanyahu at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. Yonatan was killed while leading the famous Entebbe rescue operation in 1976.

On June 27, 1976, an Air France jet en route from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by four terrorists and diverted to Entebbe airport in Uganda. Upon landing, the hijackers were joined by four more terrorists, and supported by then Ugandan President Idi Amin. The terrorists refused to release Jewish passengers and demanded the release of 53 convicted terrorists. On July 3rd, four Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft landed at Entebbe under the cover of darkness and proceeded to battle the terrorists. During the daring operation, which took less than an hour, all the hostages, except four, were freed, and all the terrorists were killed. Three unfortunate hostages were killed in the crossfire, and one hostage, an elderly lady who was taken to a hospital outside the airport, was taken outside the hospital later and killed by Ugandan soldiers. The IDF lost one officer, Lt.-Col. Yonatan Netanyahu.

Yonatan's family, including his younger brother - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, Director of the Israel Security Agency Yoram Cohen, Rabbi Meir Lau, and many of his friends were present at the service.

Yonatan's father, Professor Ben-Tzion Netanyahu recited the Kaddish prayer over his son's grave and family members Yair, Avner, Yael and Yoav laid a wreath on the grave site.

"I can feel your pain and the emptiness he left in your hearts. I greatly admire the revered commander who lead some of the IDF's most successful missions. He was a young Israeli who belonged to a special breed. "It's hard to explain, but you can feel it", Yoni wrote in his letters. "His words reflect what every fighter and commander feels, the burden and privilege of defending the land and the people," Gantz said. "As one who watches the fighters in the field wearing vests and uniforms, and who looks into their eyes and sees the same type of soldier that Yoni spoke about, I can say that today's warriors are ready for any mission we place before them. Their commitment and dedication is no less than Yoni's, or those of his generation. Yoni stood at the forefront his entire life; as a commander he lead from the front, always one step ahead of his soldiers, and that is also, in the end, how he fell."

　

　

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