Uganda's military unveiled a bronze statue of the Israeli commando killed rescuing hostages at Entebbe Airport fifty years ago, a tribute that lands squarely in the homeland of a New York City mayor who has vowed to arrest the commando's brother.

On August 1, Ugandan military officials gathered at the Old Entebbe Terminal to dedicate the monument to Lt. Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the Israeli officer who led the legendary 1976 hostage rescue and died in the operation. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces, had announced the tribute on X beforehand, framing it as a bond between the two nations.

Yoni Netanyahu was the older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the same leader that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly vowed to arrest if he sets foot in the city, calling him a "war criminal" in a video posted from the official @NYCMayor account. The New York Post reported on the collision of these two facts: Mamdani was born in Uganda, holds dual U.S. and Ugandan citizenship, and still owns four acres of land in Jinja, Uganda. Now his homeland has erected a monument to the family of the very man he wants in handcuffs.

Fifty years after the raid, Uganda chose Israel's side of the story

The backstory is worth knowing. On June 27, 1976, terrorists hijacked an Air France flight carrying 246 passengers from Tel Aviv to Paris and diverted it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The hijackers demanded $5 million and the release of dozens of imprisoned Palestinian militants. Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, far from opposing the operation, allowed and even supported the hijacking, according to historical accounts cited in the source.

On July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos launched Operation Thunderbolt. Yoni Netanyahu led the assault force into the terminal. His team rescued 102 of the 106 hostages held inside. Netanyahu was the only Israeli soldier killed in the raid, shot by a Ugandan sniper. The mission became the stuff of a 1977 Hollywood film and remains one of the most celebrated special-operations rescues in modern history.

Uganda restored diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994, years after Amin's regime collapsed. The bronze statue at the Old Entebbe Terminal now marks a full turn: the same airport where Amin's soldiers aided the hijackers is the site of a permanent tribute to the Israeli who gave his life ending it.

Kainerugaba made the intent explicit in his post on X:

"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."

The Kampala Post characterized the ceremony as a testament to the enduring security partnership, mutual trust, and diplomatic reconciliation between Uganda and Israel. Several senior Ugandan military officials attended.

Mamdani's family ties to Uganda make the contrast sharper

Zohran Mamdani moved to the United States at age seven after being raised in South Africa. He was born in Uganda and retains citizenship there. His four acres in Jinja are not a distant ancestral connection, they are a current, tangible stake in a country that just honored the Netanyahu family with a permanent monument.

Mamdani's difficulties are not limited to foreign affairs. He was booed off stage at an NYPD event on Staten Island in under a minute, one of several public rebukes that have defined his tenure so far.

His father, Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University professor, released a book in February titled Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni and the Making of the Ugandan State. The book argued that Amin was a product of Israeli machinations, an interpretation that places blame for the dictator's rise on Israel rather than on the internal forces and personal brutality that defined his rule.

Jonathan Beloff, who reviewed the elder Mamdani's book, pointed to a glaring omission in that thesis:

"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 gap matters. The Mamdani family's intellectual project frames Israel as the villain of Uganda's modern history. Uganda itself, by erecting a statue to an Israeli soldier at the very site of Amin's complicity, has reached a different conclusion.

The mayor has also faced resistance closer to home. A fallen soldier's family kept Mamdani from speaking at her Queens funeral, another sign that his political posture has real consequences with the people he governs.

Dov Hikind calls the statue 'poetic justice'

Dov Hikind, the former Brooklyn Democratic assemblyman who founded Americans Against Antisemitism, did not hold back about the political implications. Hikind named his own son Yoni after the fallen commando, a personal connection that predates any mayoral controversy.

Hikind told the Post:

"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."

He added that the Entebbe raid carries direct relevance to the present day:

"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."

Hikind also drew a line between Amin and Mamdani, not in terms of personal conduct, but in terms of alignment against Israel:

"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."

Meanwhile, Mamdani's domestic agenda has run into its own obstacles. His signature pied-à-terre tax on luxury homes was blocked by a judge in a rebuke to his administration, and although an appeals court later lifted the restraining order, homeowners have vowed to keep fighting the policy.

A resurfaced interview clip also drew backlash in the week before the Post's report, with critics accusing Mamdani of using a "fake" Ugandan accent, a charge that, whatever its merits, added to the sense that the mayor's relationship with his birth country is more complicated than he has let on.

Uganda moved on, Mamdani hasn't

The contrast the statue creates is not subtle. Uganda, the country where Amin's soldiers guarded hostages for the hijackers, chose to honor the Israeli who died freeing them. The ceremony took place at the exact terminal where the raid unfolded. Senior military officials attended. The country's top defense commander called it a strengthening of "blood relations" with Israel.

Mamdani, born in that same country, has moved in the opposite direction, vowing to arrest Israel's prime minister and posting videos from his official mayoral account labeling him a war criminal. His father's book argues Israel bears responsibility for Amin's rise. The statue stands as a direct rebuttal to that narrative, erected by the very government the Mamdanis claim Israel corrupted.

One X user captured the awkwardness in a single Yiddish word, writing that "the Mamdani family must be plotzing", roughly, beside themselves with frustration.

Uganda reconciled with Israel three decades ago. The bronze statue of Yoni Netanyahu is the physical proof. If the mayor of New York City wants to know where his homeland stands on the question, the answer is bolted to the floor of the Old Entebbe Terminal.