Documents claim Israel aided Entebbe hijack

The Israeli secret service and radical Palestinians may have engineered the hijacking of an Air France plane that flew to Entebbe in Uganda, according to a claim in newly released government documents. This extraordinary interpretation on the Entebbe raid was cited by a British diplomat, DH Colvin of the Paris embassy, in June 30, 1976 as the world was transfixed by the hostage crisis in Entebbe, which is featured in the recent film The Last King of Scotland. In a document released by the National Archives, Colvin, citing an unnamed contact at the Euro-Arab parliamentary association, wrote: "According to his information, the hijack was the work of the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine], with help from the Israeli secret service, the Shin Beit." Describing the collaboration as an unholy alliance, he went on: "The operation was designed to torpedo the PLO's [Palestine Liberation Organization] standing in France and to prevent what they see as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans. "Their nightmare is that after the November elections, one will witness the imposition in the Middle East of a Pax Americana, which will be the advantage of the PLO (who will gain international respectability and perhaps the right to establish a state on evacuated territories) and to the disadvantage of the Refusal Front (who will be squeezed right out in any overall peace settlement and will lose their raison d'etre) and Israel (who will be forced to evacuate occupied territory)." Hijackers seized the plane shortly after it took off from Athens on June 27. The plane was diverted first to Benghazi, Libya, where it was refueled before to going on to Entebbe. In Entebbe, the hijackers released most of the hostages but kept 98 people, many of them Israeli citizens, and threatened to kill them unless Israel met their demands. In the dramatic rescue, Israeli commandos flew 2,500 miles, receiving cooperation from neighboring Kenya to mount their assault on the night of July 3. They fought a 36-minute battle at the airport with the seven hijackers and about 80 Ugandan soldiers. The six hijackers were killed, along with 45 Ugandan soldiers, three hostages and a sole member of the Israeli rescue party. Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu, the elder brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, who subsequently became prime minister, was killed after being shot from the airport tower. Although the Ugandan president, Idi Amin, frequently visited the hostages and tried to encourage them, it is generally believed, particularly by Israel -- as the documents show -- that he collaborated with the hijackers. The hijackers' demands included a list of countries that should release Palestinians or others fighting for the Palestinian cause. The document said France was being sent the message that a pro-Palestinian policy was "no guarantee" it would not be targeted by Palestinian terrorists. Particularly if it ends in bloodshed, "the incident will have damaged the Palestinian cause with French public opinion," the document noted. The diplomat drew several lessons from the incident, including the need for international collaboration to counter international terrorism and the blow that had been dealt to the theory that a western country could in any sense be a terrorist-free sanctuary. As for the policy implications of the Entebbe saga, he concluded: "If the incident does lead to a reappraisal of French Middle East policy (which seems unlikely), it is likely to lend weight to the arguments of those who call for an early resumption of moves leading to an overall peace settlement, including the creation of a Palestinian state on territory to be evacuated by Israel. "Unless this is done, the indiscipline of the Palestinians will become more marked and incidents of this kind will become more frequent."