According to Israel's Channel 14, dozens of veterans who took part in the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation boycotted the official 50th-anniversary ceremony on Sunday, in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's participation. The report did not specify the number of veterans who attended.
The 50th anniversary of Operation Entebbe — the 1976 IDF hostage rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, in which Lt. Col. Yonatan 'Yoni' Netanyahu was killed — has been marked by controversy after Channel 14 reported Sunday evening that dozens of operation veterans boycotted the official ceremony. The boycott was in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's participation in the event. Netanyahu is the brother of Yoni Netanyahu, the operation's fallen commander. Earlier this month, some veterans had signaled they would skip the ceremony, as The Zioneer reported on July 6. The channel's report did not provide details on the number of veterans who did attend the ceremony. The event comes amid a broader political climate in which the prime minister's attendance at public ceremonies has drawn criticism from opponents.
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