The rescue of one hundred Israeli and Jewish passengers from Entebbe airport by commandos took place at the beginning of July. The commander of the operation, Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed during the gunfight. The Air France Airbus had been hijacked by a breakaway faction of the PFLP and members of the far Left German Revolutionary Cells in connivance with Idi Amin, the president of Uganda. A bemedalled and bewildered Amin is seen here standing on a deflating pedestal and literally about to be brought down to earth. Titled here ‘Operation Uganda’, it became popularly known as ‘Operation Yonatan’ after the slain Netanyahu.

Moshik Lin (Ma’ariv 8 July 1976)

4 Jan

Israeli pound devalued again to 7.24 to the dollar

5 Jan

Government closure of Timna copper mine provokes strike in Eilat

13 Jan

City council agrees development of no-man’s-land in Mamilla, Jerusalem

14 Jan

Israel’s population estimated at 3.49 million

24 Jan

Pinhas Lavon dies in Tel Aviv aged 71

26 Jan

Israel opens border to Lebanese Christians fleeing civil war

29 Jan

Knesset amendment to legalise abortion opposed by haredi MKs

2 Feb

First ever evening-long television discussion about homosexuality

10 Feb

First reading on legalising abortion passed 46–27 in Knesset free vote

14 Mar

Anwar Sadat abrogates Soviet–Egyptian friendship treaty of 1971

21 Mar

Ariel Sharon resigns as Rabin’s aide in return to political arena

30 Mar

Eight Arabs killed and 35 Israeli soldiers injured in Land Day clashes

8 Apr

South African prime minister Vorster visits Israel

12 Apr

PLO and Communists triumph in West Bank municipal elections

12 June

Mapam conference decides to remain within the Labour Alignment

23 June

Knesset defeat for civil marriage bill 51–18

23 June

Israeli pound devalued by 2 per cent

27 June

Air France Airbus flight to Tel Aviv hijacked to Entebbe by PFLP faction

4 July

Israeli commandos rescue 102 hostages in Operation Thunderbolt (Yonatan)

18 July

Cabinet authorises construction of two nuclear power plants for civilian use

2 Aug

Army prevents Gush Emunim group from reaching Jericho to establish settlement

8 Aug

South African navy personnel training in Israel to operate missile boats

11 Aug

PFLP attack on El Al passengers at Istanbul airport

16 Aug

Grocers go on strike to protest against imposition of VAT

22 Aug

Israel ousted from Asian Football Confederation at Malaysia meeting

31 Aug

Registration begins for homes in Katzrin on the Golan Heights

15 Sept

Strike by 12,000 nurses, with a go-slow by hospital doctors

9 Oct

Arabs and Jews clash in Hebron on the eve of Yom Kippur

17 Oct

Egypt dismantles final missile site on the east bank of the Suez Canal

18 Oct

Asher Yadlin, designated Bank of Israel governor, arrested for bribery

2 Nov

Jimmy Carter wins US election for the Democrats

11 Nov

USA supports UN Security Council condemning West Bank settlements

16 Nov

Ariel Sharon announces intention to form Shlomzion party

22 Nov

Yigael Yadin announces formation of Democratic Movement for Change

26 Nov

Israel denounces UN call for Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza

12 Dec

Government declares all of Israel to be a rabies danger zone

20 Dec

Yitzhak Rabin resigns as prime minister after NRP ministers leave coalition

The remarkable rescue of mainly Israeli passengers at Entebbe airport in July was applauded both in Israel and internationally. The Air France Airbus had been hijacked by a breakaway faction of the PFLP and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells. Identifiable Jews and Israelis were separated from the other passengers. Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu who led the operation was killed as were the hijackers and forty-five Ugandan soldiers.

At the beginning of the year, Yitzhak Rabin commented that any consideration of dropping the boycott of the PLO would be predicated on its recognition of Israel and its renunciation of the Palestinian Covenant. Israeli doves, however, quietly met PLO representatives in Paris to discuss the conflict. The details of the discussion were later conveyed to Rabin. In November, Moshe Dayan suggested that Israel should talk to the PLO and assist in the establishment of a Palestinian home within Jordan. In New York, PLO representatives Sabri Jiryis and Issam Satawi met with small groups of US Jews under Quaker auspices and a two-state solution was discussed. A poll in Ha’aretz suggested that 39 per cent of Israelis would accept participation by the PLO in a reconvened Geneva peace conference if it recognised Israel’s right to exist.

At the UN, Palestinian representatives pressed for the return of all refugees who had left since 1948 and the restoration of their property. At the end of the year, the UN General Assembly called for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Resolutions at UNESCO and the WHO condemning Israel and supporting Palestinian rights were supported by states of the Warsaw bloc, the Islamic and the developing worlds. Israel was ousted from the Asian Football Confederation which it had helped to establish in 1954.

The Yarmouk, Kedessiyeh and Hittin brigades of the Palestine Liberation Army entered the Lebanese civil war under Syrian auspices and positioned themselves partly in Fatahland in southern Lebanon. Israel’s northern border was opened to allow any fleeing Lebanese Christians to enter. Anwar Sadat also commented that Egypt would not be drawn into a new war between Syria and Israel. This came after Henry Kissinger confirmed US plans to sell six Hercules C-130 military transports to Egypt after the end of the alignment with the USSR and despite Rabin’s protest. In March, Sadat abrogated the 1971 friendship treaty with the Soviet Union.

In April, the South African prime minister, John Vorster, visited Israel. While the Rabin government condemned apartheid, he was given a state banquet and duly signed an economic agreement. The visit was criticised by American Jewish organisations, but in reality it reflected Israel’s global isolation.

In May, the cabinet held a nine-hour meeting on unauthorised settlements which resolved little and ended with the publication of an ambiguous statement. A majority of cabinet members agreed to the evacuation of the Kadum settlers and their transfer to another site – one which would be authorised by the government. By the end of the year, the Kadum settlers still had not moved and they celebrated the first anniversary of the settlement in the presence of Menahem Begin, Ariel Sharon and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

An attempt to establish a settlement at Jericho by a small group of Gush Emunim members was prevented by the army, while the government refused to grant permission to the organisation to take over the former Hadassah hospital in Hebron and convert it into a synagogue. Yet the military authorities took no action against a Gush Emunim leader, Moshe Levinger, when he entered Hebron, contravening the military government’s ruling.

Events on the eve of Yom Kippur led to heightened tensions in Hebron. There was a tearing of Torah scrolls and prayer books amidst Arab claims of a trampling on the Quran. Clashes ensued between Arabs and Jews while Israeli soldiers attempted to limit the violence by preventing Jews from nearby Kiriat Arba conducting Shabbat services at the old Ohel Avraham synagogue a few yards from the Cave of Makhpela.

At the end of March, there were serious disturbances both on the West Bank and within Arab towns and villages in Israel. The pro-Kremlin Rakah party organised a general strike against land expropriation. Municipal elections held on the West Bank returned PLO supporters rather than pro-Jordanian figures. This represented the emergence of a younger generation which regarded themselves as first and foremost Palestinians. This led Yigal Allon, who favoured the Jordanian option, to criticise Shimon Peres, who had advocated elections. In December, the Arab municipalities organised a one-day strike in protest against the imposition of VAT, which shut down both the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In addition, there were attacks on civilians within Israel. A bomb was left on board a bus south of Tel Aviv, while a Katyusha rocket landed in the Abu-Tor district of Jerusalem. Two bomb disposal experts were killed in central Jerusalem when they attempted to defuse an explosive hidden in a paint pot, while a pipe bomb was activated by remote control in a Tel Aviv cinema.

Within weeks of the success of the rescue at Entebbe airport, passengers waiting to board an Israel-bound El Al flight at Istanbul airport were injured when grenades were thrown at them by PFLP members as they were going through the final security checkpoint .

The government began to provide mobile homes for the remnant of the Gush Emunim group from the unauthorised settlement of Sebastia who had been permitted to live at the army base at Kadum. This provoked a demonstration outside Kadum by Mapam and the left-wing party Moked against Gush Emunin. The NRP reacted to this by threatening to bring down the government coalition if the settlers at Kadum were evacuated. The settlers then formally established a settlement adjacent to the army base and twenty thousand supporters of Gush Emunim participated in a two-day march from Beit El to Jericho. This was opposed by counter-marches of Arabs from Nablus and El Bireh.

The Kadum controversy nourished a growing split within the governing Labour party, with Shimon Peres, Shlomo Hillel and Gad Yaacobi aligning themselves with the Gush Emunim settlers amidst deepening criticism of Yitzhak Rabin’s leadership and policies. Yigael Yadin formed a new party to attract Labour voters, while Dayan hinted that he might leave the party. Likud (39), NRP (10) and Agudat Yisrael (5), parties which supported the settlers, accounted for 54 mandates. The Likud believed that there would be up to eight defectors from Labour which could provide them with a majority in the Knesset.

Rabin’s authority was also undermined by the worsening economic crisis. Israel’s export earnings had dropped from 18 to 4 per cent since 1969. By the beginning of the year, the Israeli pound had been devalued by 66 per cent since November 1974. By June, there had been ten devaluations since the same period in 1975. The government considered a policy of ‘creeping devaluation’ such that the pound would be devalued by up to 2 per cent each month.

This was followed by Haolam Hazeh’s revelations of corruption within Labour’s elite. Asher Yadlin was due to be appointed governor of the Bank of Israel in November. Instead he was charged with bribery. The minister of housing, Avraham Ofer, was accused of embezzling funds in favour of the Labour party – a charge he denied. Shimon Peres, Rabin’s rival, utilised such developments to further undermine the prime minister.

The Rabin government collapsed in December when the NRP left the coalition owing to its objections to the arrival of F-15s in Israel from the USA close to the onset of the Shabbat.