A State funeral was held here today for Dora Bloch who was murdered in Kampala, Uganda in July 1976, on the orders of former President Idi Amin. Moshe Nissim, Minister-Without-Portfolio, who represented the government at the funeral, said “An order by a crazed tyrannical ruler put an end to the life of Dora Bloch who was guilty of no more than going to attend the wedding of her son.”
The elderly woman was a passenger on an Air France jet hijacked to Entebbe Uganda in June 1976. She was hospitalized in Kampala when Israeli commandos rescued most of her fellow hostages on July 3 and the next day was dragged from her bed by Amin’s secret police and murdered, apparently in revenge for the successful rescue operation. Speaking of Amin’s recent downfall; Nissim said,” The end of that tyrannical regime is a sign of hope for the entire world the funeral was also attended by President Yitzhak Navon and Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem.
Mrs. Bloch held dual Israeli and British citizenship and was en route to London to attend the wedding of one of her sons. Her remains were found in a village near Kampala with the cooperation of the new Ugandan authorities and were flown to Israel Sunday where a pathologist made positive identification.
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