A statue of Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu was unveiled at the old terminal building at Entebbe Airport on 1 August. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's military chief, presided over the ceremony. Netanyahu, the older brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the only Israeli soldier killed in the raid of 4 July 1976.
Four hostages died in connection with the operation: Jean-Jacques Maimoni, Pasco Cohen, Ida Borochovitch and Dora Bloch. Kainerugaba described the site as historic and the monument as an honour to mark there.
The choice of location carries most of the meaning. The raid was an Israeli operation conducted on Ugandan soil against a government that was hosting the hijackers, and a monument to the Israeli commander now stands at the building where it happened, put there by the Ugandan military.
Kainerugaba has given his own account of the decision. In a post later deleted he said that for four years Jesus Christ had appeared to him in dreams and visions and had told him to build a monument to Yoni Netanyahu. That explanation belongs to him rather than to either state, which is worth saying plainly given how easily a personal motive is read as a diplomatic one.