Sky was the limit for SA-born Entebbe doctor

The South African-born doctor who headed the medical team in the Entebbe raid in 1976, Dr Jossy Faktor, passed away at the age of 80 on erev Rosh Hashanah in Israel.

“He hardly ever spoke about Entebbe. He respected that they weren’t allowed to talk about it,” says his brother, Basil Faktor, from Pretoria, where he, Jossy, and their late brother grew up.

“We found out that he had been on the Entebbe team only after the fact. We were so proud, but also knew how dangerous it was.

“The only time he spoke about it was when he was the director of Afula Hospital and he managed to raise a substantial contribution by giving talks about Entebbe in the United States,” says his wife, Barbara Faktor (nee Weiner). “With the money raised, a CAT scanner was acquired for Afula Hospital – the second or third in the country.”

Faktor’s earliest childhood memories of his brother are of their years growing up in the then-thriving Pretoria Jewish community, where Judaism and Zionism were the guiding forces in their lives.

“My father came from Plungyan, and my mother from Kovno, both in Lithuania. My father was already an avid Zionist back in Lithuania, and my mother was a Hebrew teacher. Our parents spoke Yiddish at home.”

Habonim played a huge role in their lives. “We would go to weekly meetings, seminars, and machaneh, and those are the memories of our youth that stand out the most,” says Faktor. “Jossy eventually became bakoach [head] of Habonim in Pretoria, then studied medicine at the University of Pretoria [Tuks], graduating as a doctor in 1962.”

A year later, he married Barbara, who he met at Habonim. “He had no doubt in his mind from a very early age that he would make aliyah,” she says. “He came to Israel to Tel Hashomer Hospital [now the Sheba Medical Center] as a medical student, and worked in the hospital as part of an exchange programme. As soon as he finished medical school, he was accepted for an internship of two years at Tel Hashomer. Hospital Director Dr Haim Sheba [who the hospital was later named after] took Jossy under his wing and was like a father to him.”

The couple made aliyah, settling in what was “possibly the first house in Herzlia Pituach”, says Faktor. His brother did a residency in obstetrics and gynaecology (obgyn), which he specialised in. The couple had four children. One son passed away at the age of 42.

Amidst a career of exceptional achievements in obgyn and hospital administration, Faktor had a second career in aviation medicine. “He was interested in aviation and volunteered for flight training, becoming a reconnaissance pilot in 1973. He was also a flight surgeon in the Yom Kippur War,” says his brother.

Faktor became an Israeli Air Force physician and was sent to participate in a course at the School of Aerospace Medicine at the Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio in the United States, returning to Israel to assume the post of Israeli Air Force surgeon general. He held this position from 1975 to 1978, and was in the role during the Entebbe raid.

A Washington Post article on Entebbe three years after the event reported how, “The worst for him was sitting on Entebbe runway with the bay of the huge transport yawning open to a night sky streaked with tracers and bomb flashes. For 53 minutes, they watched, readying the plane for use as a flying hospital, wondering if perhaps the whole group would be blown up, if they themselves would be gunned down. The amazing thing was that there were fewer than 10 wounded – three hostages and the operation’s leader were killed.

“Faktor goes unrecognised on the streets of Jerusalem. He received no medals, nor did anybody else on the raid,” continued the report. “He’s not allowed to give interviews in Israel, and even here he cannot reveal certain details. ‘We may have to use these techniques again some day,’ he explained in his South African British drawl.”

“Jossy related to Entebbe as part of his medical service and as his obvious duty as an airforce medical officer,” says his wife.

He was also president of the Israel Society of Aerospace Medicine – a field in which the patients are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. In this role, “he organised a highly successful International Aerospace Conference in Jerusalem with a record turnout from all over the world”, says his wife.

“He was appointed as a member of the transport ministry’s Medical Appeals Board in 1986, a position he held until his passing, and participated in military and civilian aeromedical evacuation work. In 2009, he was appointed civil air surgeon for the Israel Civil Aviation Authority, a role he held until he retired less than a year ago. He was also elected a member of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine,” says his successor as head of the airforce medical unit, Dr Yehezkel Caine.

“He was an Israeli. The minute he arrived in Israel, he soared to fantastic heights. He spoke a very pure, perfect Hebrew,” says his brother. “But he remained interested in rugby, and sometimes spoke Afrikaans interspersed with Hebrew. He didn’t forget his South African past.”

There was an eight-year difference between the brothers, “so I always thought of him as another father. I remember going to my first machaneh at the age of eight, and my brothers looked after me. We thought Jossy was invincible. He always lived for the day, and I think he achieved everything he wanted to in his career, but he would have loved to see all of his eight grandchildren have their Barmitzvahs and Batmitzvahs and get married.”

His niece, Nikki Gilbert, spoke about her uncle in a Habonim online tribute, “Jossy was a gentle, kind, wise, and funny uncle, who always had time for my sister, brother, and me. He also had a special relationship with each one of my kids, not easy to accomplish from 10 000 miles [16 093km] away. He told interesting [sometimes rambling] stories, shared corny jokes, loved sprinkling his conversation with Afrikaans, and his memories of growing up in Pretoria. And, he always cooked us delicious meals. We miss him, and our future visits to Israel will never be the same. His memory will always be for a blessing.”