760610
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760610
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Va. Pilot July 10, 1976
Israel, Uganda Poised
For Hijacking Debate
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel and Uganda squared off Friday for a U.N. Security Council debate, condemning each other over a plane hijacking by pro-Palestinians and an Israeli raid on Uganda's Entebbe Airport that rescued more than 100 of the hijackers' hostages.
"We have no doubt that (Ugandan President) Idi Amin is a full partner to the terrorists in the hijacking," Israeli Maj. Gen. Rehavam Zeevi told the Israeli Radio Friday.
"He knew of the hijacking before the plane arrived in Entebbe and he behaved throughout the negotiations as a full partner to the terrorists," Zeevi said.
Amin sent his foreign minister, Juma Oris, to New York to accuse Israel of "blatant aggression" in the raid. Oris was expected to argue that Amin treated the hostages well and was acting as a mediator, not a captor.
But Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog promised to give the council such a volume of evidence that "nobody would have any doubt whatsoever" that Amin was involved in the hijacking from the start.
Israeli officials said Herzog would argue that saving the lives of the plane's passengers and crew held priority over respect for Ugandan sovereignty.
The hijackers seized the Air France jet on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and forced it down at Entebbe Airport two weeks ago. They demanded the release of terrorists jailed in Israel and other countries in exchange for their hostages.
Ugandans and other Africans claim that Western nations, in jubilation over the Israeli success, persistently overlook the heavy Ugandan casualties. Amin and Oris have said variously that 20 or 100 Ugandan soldiers were killed. Three hostages and one Israeli commando also were reported killed.
Africans have circulated a working draft strongly condemning Israel and demanding that it pay "full compensation" for damage and destruction at Entebbe. The United States has left no doubt that a resolution would be vetoed.
Amin Has Damage
To Brain: Doctor
TEL AVIV (UPI) — An Israeli psychiatrist who treated Idi Amin for three years said Friday that the erratic Ugandan president suffers from brain damage caused by tertiary syphilis.
"In all respects, Idi Amin is very sick - and not just mentally," said Dr. Marcel Assael, a lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"During his visits he would ask stupid, childlike, and confused questions," Assael said. "He would describe his conversations with God, angels, and other voices he heard in the night."
Assael, head of the Department of Psychiatry at Kaplan Hospital in nearby Rehovoth, said the Ugandan president displays "classic symptoms of syphilis."
President Ford, asked Friday at a Washington news conference if America was disturbed by Israel's violation of Ugandan sovereignty, said the U.S. position "is a good one on firm legal grounds."
Ford said the U.S. position on such matters was illustrated by his order for the military to retrieve the merchant ship Mayaguez after it was seized by the Cambodian navy in 1975.
Woman May Be Dead
LONDON (UPI) — British government officials, stymied in their attempts to solve the mystery of the 75-year-old widow stranded in Uganda when Israeli commandos rescued more than 100 hijack hostages, said Friday that she may have died during her ordeal.
President Idi Amin of Uganda has ignored repeated inquiries about Mrs. Dora Bloch's fate from the British Foreign Office and the United Nations. However, he spoke by telephone to a Tel Aviv newspaper and declared that the commandos took the woman to Israel.
"She is in Israel," he said. "They took her there. She is not in Uganda."
A British diplomat in Kampala said that had dual British and Israeli citizenship. In her hospital bed Sunday, the day after the hostages were rescued, but that she disappeared later that day.
Diplomatic sources in Washington reported that patients at the Kampala hospital said that Mrs. Bloch, who had a heart condition, was dragged from her bed Sunday by two Ugandan secret police agents. She was gagged to stifle her screams, the sources said, and she appeared to have stopped breathing when she was carried to a car outside the hospital.
British officials said there was grave concern the elderly woman had died during her ordeal, if she was was not slain outright. They were unable to confirm the
Va. Pilot July 10, 1976
Israel, Uganda Poised
For Hijacking Debate
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel and Uganda squared off Friday for a U.N. Security Council debate, condemning each other over a plane hijacking by pro-Palestinians and an Israeli raid on Uganda's Entebbe Airport that rescued more than 100 of the hijackers' hostages.
"We have no doubt that (Ugandan President) Idi Amin is a full partner to the terrorists in the hijacking," Israeli Maj. Gen. Rehavam Zeevi told the Israeli Radio Friday.
"He knew of the hijacking before the plane arrived in Entebbe and he behaved throughout the negotiations as a full partner to the terrorists," Zeevi said.
Amin sent his foreign minister, Juma Oris, to New York to accuse Israel of "blatant aggression" in the raid. Oris was expected to argue that Amin treated the hostages well and was acting as a mediator, not a captor.
But Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog promised to give the council such a volume of evidence that "nobody would have any doubt whatsoever" that Amin was involved in the hijacking from the start.
Israeli officials said Herzog would argue that saving the lives of the plane's passengers and crew held priority over respect for Ugandan sovereignty.
The hijackers seized the Air France jet on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and forced it down at Entebbe Airport two weeks ago. They demanded the release of terrorists jailed in Israel and other countries in exchange for their hostages.
Ugandans and other Africans claim that Western nations, in jubilation over the Israeli success, persistently overlook the heavy Ugandan casualties. Amin and Oris have said variously that 20 or 100 Ugandan soldiers were killed. Three hostages and one Israeli commando also were reported killed.
Africans have circulated a working draft strongly condemning Israel and demanding that it pay "full compensation" for damage and destruction at Entebbe. The United States has left no doubt that a resolution would be vetoed.
Amin Has Damage
To Brain: Doctor
TEL AVIV (UPI) — An Israeli psychiatrist who treated Idi Amin for three years said Friday that the erratic Ugandan president suffers from brain damage caused by tertiary syphilis.
"In all respects, Idi Amin is very sick - and not just mentally," said Dr. Marcel Assael, a lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"During his visits he would ask stupid, childlike, and confused questions," Assael said. "He would describe his conversations with God, angels, and other voices he heard in the night."
Assael, head of the Department of Psychiatry at Kaplan Hospital in nearby Rehovoth, said the Ugandan president displays "classic symptoms of syphilis."
President Ford, asked Friday at a Washington news conference if America was disturbed by Israel's violation of Ugandan sovereignty, said the U.S. position "is a good one on firm legal grounds."
Ford said the U.S. position on such matters was illustrated by his order for the military to retrieve the merchant ship Mayaguez after it was seized by the Cambodian navy in 1975.
Woman May Be Dead
LONDON (UPI) — British government officials, stymied in their attempts to solve the mystery of the 75-year-old widow stranded in Uganda when Israeli commandos rescued more than 100 hijack hostages, said Friday that she may have died during her ordeal.
President Idi Amin of Uganda has ignored repeated inquiries about Mrs. Dora Bloch's fate from the British Foreign Office and the United Nations. However, he spoke by telephone to a Tel Aviv newspaper and declared that the commandos took the woman to Israel.
"She is in Israel," he said. "They took her there. She is not in Uganda."
A British diplomat in Kampala said that had dual British and Israeli citizenship. In her hospital bed Sunday, the day after the hostages were rescued, but that she disappeared later that day.
Diplomatic sources in Washington reported that patients at the Kampala hospital said that Mrs. Bloch, who had a heart condition, was dragged from her bed Sunday by two Ugandan secret police agents. She was gagged to stifle her screams, the sources said, and she appeared to have stopped breathing when she was carried to a car outside the hospital.
British officials said there was grave concern the elderly woman had died during her ordeal, if she was was not slain outright. They were unable to confirm the
Collection
Citation
“760610,” Archive Home, accessed July 28, 2026, https://pkman.org/archive/items/show/325.