Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday landed at Entebbe airport for the half day visit to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his government’s raid on the same airport on the same date in 1976.
He landed at exactly 1.40pm. Security at the airport has been taken over by Israeli detail.
Present to receive him are several government dignitaries, the Jewish community in Uganda, Ugandan security and members of the diplomatic corp, among others.
In an interview at his Jerusalem office on Friday ahead of his visit, Mr Netanyahu told Daily Monitor that his visit is an attempt to thaw relations that have been icy for decades over the Palestinian question and Israel’s dealings with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
“I’m very open about it, that’s true,” said Mr Netanyahu, who will be the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Africa in over two decades. “Why should there be such a dissonance between these strong bilateral ties and the multilateral ties? Why not correct this absurdity?”
The Israeli PM said he had not visited Africa earlier because of fraught relations with many countries on the continent.
“Israel was blacklisted in Africa, basically kicked out by political pressure from many, many countries in which we were involved in the 60s and 70s and it took a while to change.”
UM– USEKE.RW
