A monument dedicated to Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu has been unveiled at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport where the brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell leading an elite force to rescue 106 hostages in 1976.
July 3 marked the 50th anniversary of Operation Entebbe – which was later renamed Operation Yonatan in honour of the Israeli commando commander.
“There’s not a day I don’t think about him,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.
“There’s not a day that I don’t try to consult with him and with my father.”
Itay Zalait, the Israeli painter and sculptor who created the monument told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12: “There aren’t many memorials erected at the exact place where the person fell. It’s chilling.”
The artist ravelled to Uganda at the invitation of the local government to see the airport firsthand, with the project taking about six months to complete, during which he shared his design plans with the Ugandan authorities.
Initially the officials wanted the statue to be more static, but Zalait said it was important to him to portray Netanyahu in motion, to capture the last moments of his life as the commander of the Israel Defence Forces’ Sayeret Matkal unit, who charge forward, he stated.
Zalait went on to describe the creation process as a full circle, since he began his military service in Sayeret Matkal. As part of his preparations for the project, he spoke with the unit’s veterans and historians to collect “every possible perspective” on Netanyahu, according to Channel 12.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Force – the country’s armed forces – and the son of the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, attended the unveiling, saying it was a “great honour and privilege” to be there, local media reported.
“This memorial stands not only in remembrance of a distinguished soldier, but also as a tribute to the enduring values he embodied: courage in the face of danger, unwavering commitment to protecting innocent lives, and steadfast devotion to duty,” he was quoted as stating.
The general went on to express his admiration of the Jewish state, saying that his country had developed “good relations” with Israel, based on “mutual respect and practical cooperation.”
An Israeli delegation was also present at the event.
Kainerugaba made headlines in recent months after posting a series of pro-Israel statements on X.
In February, he revealed that his country would erect a statue of Netanyahu at the historic airport.
The following month, he stated that Uganda wished the war in the Middle East to end – referring to the joint Israeli-US campaign against Iran – adding that “any talk of destroying or defeating Israel will bring us into the war. On the side of Israel!”
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