Gen Moses Ali protests Entebbe Israeli raid celebrations
First deputy prime minister Gen Moses Ali (left) and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Kampala- First deputy premier Moses Ali has questioned the logic of Ugandans participating in the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Israeli commandos’ raid on Entebbe International Airport to free Israeli hostages in 1976.
Gen Ali (retired), a Finance minister at the time of the July 4, 1976 Operation Thunderbolt, said Uganda should instead be “mourning; shedding tears” for the more-than-a-dozen soldiers killed that day while defending the country’s territorial integrity.
“If you are siding with Israelis, then you can celebrate because it was their victory. [Otherwise] if you are not, then you should be mourning our dead ones,” he told this newspaper in an interview at his home last weekend.
The raid was renamed Operation Yonatan in honour of its commander Lt Col Yonatan Netanyahu, brother to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was shot dead by a Ugandan soldier.
President Netanyahu is expected to attend tomorrow’s festivities in Uganda where he, according to ministry of Foreign Affairs permanent secretary James Mugume, will meet heads of state in the region gathering in Kampala for a summit.
According to the official programme, Mr Netanyahu and wife Sara will land at Entebbe International Airport at 1pm tomorrow to a 19-gun salute and after the protocol formalities, hold a brief meeting with President Museveni and participate in the anniversary events. The Israelis during that attack, 40 years ago, destroyed 11 MiG fighters the Soviet Union had supplied to Uganda.
“Celebrate what?” General Ali asked when told of a plan by Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) to turn the raid into a cash cow by marking it on the calendar as a flagship event to market Uganda’s tourism potential, particularly to Israelis.
“As things stand, this day should be observed by Israelis because it was their victory over us,” he said, adding: “If we [Ugandans] are to observe it, it must be to remember our dead, not celebrate. We should be shedding tears...”
The government’s plan, so far, does not include arrangements to honour on-duty soldiers the Israeli commandos killed in 1976.
Mid last month, Uganda’s the Observer newspaper reported about a plan announced by UTB President Boniface Byamukama to make a new film based on the 90-minute operation, after the successful Irvin Kershner-directed Raid on Entebbe movie.
Whereas the Israelis pride in their clinical mission, which catapulted its planners and implementers to national political and defence leadership in Tel Aviv, Gen Ali said President Idi Amin was left “humiliated and angry”.
The raid
The Israeli onslaught, aided by Kenya, was prompted by Uganda’s decision to host pro-Palestinian hijackers who threatened to kill about 100 Jews/Israelis out of their 250 hostages if 53 Palestinian militants jailed in Israel and four other countries were not released.
Uganda at the time, as now, believed in a two-state solution to the long-running Middle East conflict, where Israel and Palestine exist side-by-side as independent states. Under President Obama, the US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has pursued a similar policy --- but without much success. The Palestinians remain under Israeli occupation and the region is consumed by internecine bloodshed.
During the weekend interview, Gen Ali said the raid was such an anti-climax that the Cabinet at the time – at least in his presence – never discussed it.
The deputy premier said he believes the Israelis either directly or through Kenya “infiltrated” Uganda’s top security circles because top spies and key military officers in Kampala casually dismissed two credible leads about the impending raid as “lies”.
