Entebbe survivor launches viral campaign for Israeli hostages

By Jewish Breaking News

A single minute at 11:59 am. That’s what Benny Davidson is asking of the world. Not money, not protests, just 60 seconds of visible solidarity for Israel’s hostages in Gaza whose suffering the 61-year-old understands with rare intimacy.

Davidson was just 13 when terrorists hijacked Air France Flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27, 1976. He sat with his family as two Palestinian and two German hijackers took control, separating Jewish and Israeli passengers from others.

Under the protection of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, the terrorists held them hostage while demanding the release of hundreds of terrorists worldwide. The psychological toll of captivity remains vivid in Davidson’s memory all these decades later.

“We were hijacked after a stopover in Athens and landed in Benghazi, Libya for a couple of hours and then continued to Entebbe. We didn’t know that we were going to spend a week there,” Davidson recalls to Jewish News.

“The main issue of becoming a hostage is not just taking away your freedom, it’s taking away your ability to predict what’s going to be in the next minute, or in the next hour, or in the next day.”

When the terrorists announced they would collect identification documents, Davidson’s father discovered he was carrying his Israeli Air Force combat navigator ID.

“Now, a captain in the Israeli Air Force, a combat navigator, is not someone you want to fall in the hands of terrorists,” Davidson says.

“So what did my father do? He tore it to four pieces. Each one of us got a piece. We continued to tear it to small papers, put it in our mouth, made small paper balls out of it, and threw it in a soft green can in the seat in front of us, and within two minutes, there was no more Israeli Air Force combat navigator on the plane.”

Remarkably, his parents established routines throughout their captivity by organizing a makeshift library, washing dishes, distributing food, and playing games.

“They built some sort of internal strength; resilience, translating a potential trauma into great power. And I can sum it up into two factors. One is to enable order in a chaotic situation. And that was one hell of a chaotic situation,” he says.

“Because you’re guarded by 10 terrorists and over 100 Ugandans. So you should fear for your life. But when you use daily routines, it enables you to mask, to some extent, the terror. It’s order versus chaos.”

Famously, the Entebbe hostage crisis ended when Israel’s elite Sayeret Matkal commandos stormed the airport on July 3, 1976.

Led by Yoni Netanyahu, brother to Israel’s current Prime Minister, “Operation Thunderbolt” successfully rescued 102 of the 106 hostages, though Netanyahu himself was killed during the raid.

Now, nearly five decades later, Davidson has transformed his experience into a mission, launching #HopeAMinute to advocate for the remaining Oct. 7 hostages in Gaza.

Every day at 11:59 am, participants upload a 60-second video or photo of themselves calling for the hostages’ release, using the hashtags #HopeAMinute and #UntilTheLastOne.

“Let’s stand for one minute. Just 60 seconds at 11:59 am and take a photo or a video of ourselves with a crowd, if we are at home with our kids, if we’re in a restaurant, if we’re in the office, if we’re in a factory, if we’re in a shopping mall, if we’re in the streets,” Davidson tells the UK Jewish news outlet.

“You don’t need to dress, you don’t need to hold a placard or something. You don’t need the drums. You don’t need whistles. You don’t need anything,” he explains. The idea gives people “a sense of closeness and togetherness in stating something that everybody is for.”