9.13 Heros and Heroines of Israel: The Air France Hijacking
Terrorists learned from the Sabena hijacking not to hijack planes to Israel. On June 27 1976 an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner with 248 passengers was hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells. The flight, which originated in Tel Aviv with the destination of Paris, stopped in Greece. The terrorists got on there. They diverted the plane to an airport in the city of Entebbe in the far away country of Uganda.
After moving all hostages from the aircraft to a disused airport building, the hijackers separated all Israelis and several non-Israeli Jews from the larger group and forced them into a separate room. Over the following two days, 148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown out to Paris. Ninety-four, mainly Israeli, passengers along with the 12-member Air France crew, remained as hostages and were threatened with death. The hijackers threatened to kill the hostages if their demands for the release of Palestinian terrorists were not met.
Releasing terrorists in exchange for hostages is a very dangerous thing to do not only because the terrorists will be free to commit terror again but also because than terrorists will take more hostages in the future to and make more demands. Sending troops to free the hostages was also very dangerous. The hostages were being held thousands of miles away from Israel in Uganda a country that was hostile to Israel. The last thing Israel needed was to go to war with Uganda. Even if Israel could somehow get troops to where the hostages were the terrorists would kill all the hostages the moment they saw Israel was coming to rescue them.
The hijacking and what happened next is an incredible story and several movies were made about it. The best movie was made in Israel and is called Mivtza Yonatan (Operation Jonathan). The original movie is more than 2 hours long and you can see it by clicking here. I condensed the movie to an hour and length and split it into two parts the first being in this lesson. I did this because I'm trying to keep these lessons below half an hour each. Here is part 1.
Click here to find out how to get rewards for taking quizzes
The second part of the movie is in the next lesson.
|
