Uganda's military unveiled a bronze statue of the Israeli commando killed in the legendary 1976 Entebbe rescue, at the very airport terminal in the homeland of New York City's fiercely anti-Netanyahu mayor.
On August 1, Ugandan Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba presided over a ceremony at the Old Entebbe Terminal to honor Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the only Israeli soldier killed during Operation Thunderbolt fifty years ago. The statue stands at the exact spot where Netanyahu fell, a site that now doubles as a pointed reminder of the widening gap between Uganda's current diplomatic posture and the politics of one of its most prominent native sons: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and holds dual U.S. and Ugandan citizenship, has repeatedly vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoni's younger brother, should the Israeli leader set foot in New York. The mayor posted a video from his official account calling Netanyahu a "war criminal." Now the country of Mamdani's birth has placed a permanent monument to the Netanyahu family's most celebrated military hero on its own soil.
General Kainerugaba, who is also the presumed heir apparent to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, announced the monument in advance on X, formerly Twitter. The New York Post reported his message framing the gesture in blunt terms:
"In order to strengthen our close blood relations with Israel, we shall soon unveil a statue to Yoni Netanyahu at the exact spot he was killed at Entebbe Airport. Yoni was the big brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. God bless Uganda and Israel."
At the ceremony itself, Kainerugaba went further. AP News reported that the general described the memorial as a tribute to "the enduring values" Netanyahu embodied, "courage in the face of danger, unwavering commitment to protecting innocent lives, and steadfast devotion to duty." Several senior Ugandan military officials attended the unveiling.
The ceremony was described by the Kampala Post as a testament to the enduring security partnership, mutual trust, and diplomatic reconciliation between Uganda and Israel, two nations that restored formal relations in 1994, nearly two decades after the raid that made the Entebbe terminal famous worldwide.
On June 27, 1976, hijackers seized Air France Flight 139, a Paris-bound plane from Tel Aviv carrying 246 passengers. They diverted the aircraft to Uganda, then ruled by dictator Idi Amin, and demanded $5 million and the release of dozens of imprisoned militants. The hostages were held at the Entebbe terminal.
On July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos launched Operation Thunderbolt. The raid rescued 102 of the 106 hostages. Yoni Netanyahu, who led the mission, was the sole Israeli military casualty, shot and killed by a Ugandan sniper. He was a lieutenant colonel. His death turned him into one of the most revered figures in Israeli military history, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his brother's death "changed the course" of his life.
A Hollywood film about the raid followed in 1977. But the political aftershocks have lasted far longer than any movie.
Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda, raised in South Africa, and moved to the United States at age seven. He still owns four acres of land in Jinja, Uganda. His father, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, released a book titled "Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni and the Making of the Ugandan State" in which, according to one reviewer, he portrayed Amin as a product of Israeli machinations.
Jonathan Beloff, who reviewed the elder Mamdani's book, offered a pointed critique:
"Despite accusing Israel of Idi Amin's rise to power, Mamdani ignores how Amin allowed, and even supported, the hijacking and attack on Jewish and Israeli passengers on Air France Flight 139."
That omission matters because it sits at the center of the Mamdani family's political identity. The mayor has built a public brand around opposition to Israel's current government, vowing arrest, issuing videos, and using the authority of his office to signal hostility toward the Israeli prime minister. Meanwhile, the country where Mamdani was born and still holds citizenship has moved in the opposite direction, cementing an alliance with Israel strong enough to erect a permanent monument to the Netanyahu name.
Mamdani's combative posture toward Israel has drawn real-world consequences beyond diplomatic awkwardness. A Florida man charged with a synagogue hate crime allegedly cited the mayor's Netanyahu video as motivation, according to police.
Former Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who founded Americans Against Antisemitism and named his own son Yoni after the fallen commando, did not mince words about the political implications. Hikind told the Post he viewed the statue as a rebuke to the mayor's anti-Israel stance:
"I think we call it poetic justice. I have no doubt this makes the mayor lose sleep, and he hates every moment of it. Too bad."
Hikind also drew a direct line between Amin's role in the 1976 hijacking and the politics of the current mayor.
"Look at how things changed: Amin, who supported the terrorists and enemies of Israel, and Mamdani, are very similar. No young person today knows who Amin is. The same will happen to Mamdani."
For Hikind, the statue carried personal weight. "It's very personal for me, he was a hero of the Jewish people and was ultimately dealing with what Israel is dealing with today: terrorism," he said.
The mayor's troubles extend well beyond foreign policy. Mamdani has faced a string of public rebukes at home, including being booed off stage at an NYPD celebration on Staten Island. Separately, the family of a fallen soldier blocked Mamdani from speaking at her funeral, another sharp public rejection of a mayor whose rhetoric has alienated constituencies that value law enforcement and military service.
And the controversies are not limited to public appearances. A judge halted Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax rollout after the city published personal data of 900,000 homeowners, an administrative failure that compounded questions about the competence of his administration.
The AP noted that the hijackers who seized the Air France flight were two Palestinians and two Germans, a detail that underscores the international nature of the terrorism Yoni Netanyahu confronted. Uganda's decision to honor the man who fought that terrorism, at the site where it happened, represents a full-circle repudiation of the Amin era. The country that once harbored hijackers now celebrates the commando who stopped them.
A resurfaced interview clip showing Mamdani speaking in what critics called a "fake" Ugandan accent sparked fresh backlash in the week before the statue's unveiling, a reminder that the mayor's relationship with his birth country remains a source of political friction on multiple fronts.
Uganda restored diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994 and has strengthened ties in the decades since. The statue of Yoni Netanyahu, standing at the Old Entebbe Terminal where he gave his life, is the latest and most visible expression of that alliance. For Mamdani, the man who wants to arrest the fallen commando's brother, it is a monument to a reality his own homeland has embraced and he refuses to accept.
When the country that gave you your citizenship honors the family you've vowed to prosecute, the problem isn't with the statue.
