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Terrorism | 1976 hijacking of an Air France jet by the Baader-Meinhof Group, ended by a daring Israeli commando rescue raid at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. |
The Entebbe hijacking occurred on June 27, 1976, when an Air France jet flying from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by members of the Baader-Meinhof Group. The plane was diverted to Athens and then landed at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Non-Israel passengers were released, but Israel and other passengers remained captive.1
Israel decided to mount a commando raid to rescue the passengers. Ari Ben-Menashe was part of a backup team, flying to Nairobi in an Air Force Boeing 707 to serve as a listening post. The raid was successful.1
Relations between Israel and Idi Amin, then president of Uganda, were strained at the time. Idi Amin had been installed in a military coup planned by former Israel military attaché Col. Baruch Bar Lev, but relations deteriorated after Muammar Qaddafi of Libya promised money to black Africa nations if they cut ties with Israel.1
Footnotes
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Ben-Menashe, Ari. Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network. TrineDay, 1992. ↩︎