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Times of Israel marks 50 years since Entebbe with film retrospective

The Zioneer Intelligence Desk

Primary source Internal intake · 1 reviewed intake signal · Desk window 10:53

TL;DR

The Times of Israel's culture desk published a feature on the 1977 Israeli film 'Operation Thunderbolt' (Mivtza Yonatan), discussing how it portrayed the real-life 1976 IDF hostage rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The article was published 50 years after the rescue.

01 · THE DISPATCH

The Times of Israel's culture desk released a feature Saturday examining the 1977 Israeli film 'Operation Thunderbolt' (Mivtza Yonatan), which dramatized the IDF's hostage rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda just a year after the actual 1976 raid. The article, written by the newspaper's deputy editor and movie maven, marks the 50th anniversary of the operation.

The film starred Klaus Kinski and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The feature discusses its place in Israeli cinema and its relationship to the historic rescue of over 100 hostages from the Air France flight hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists.

The Zioneer has published multiple pieces over the past week marking the anniversary, including profiles of surviving hostages and archival revelations about the cabinet's decision-making before the raid.

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