Fawzi Bey el Kaukaji, Arab terrorist leader who conducted extensive anti-Jewish and anti-British activities here before the war, has been named by the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem to command the recently merged Arab “armies,” Najada and Futuwa, it was reported today.
Kaukaji, who spent the war years in Germany, arrived in Cairo yesterday. The plane in which he was travelling touched at Lydda airport, near Jerusalem, last night, but he did not disembark. After conferences in the Egyptian capital with the Mufti and other Palestine Arab leaders, Kaukaji is expected to fly to Syria, where he will make his headquarters. It was from Syria that he led terrorist bands into Palestine during the 1936-39 riots. Although the Palestine Government had stated that Kaukaji would be apprehended if he entered Palestine, no effort was made to seize him last night, although it was known he would land at Lydda.
Seventy Arabs who were arrested Friday when the busses in which they were returning from Egypt were found to contain arms were released over the week-end. All 70 were members of the Najada. A number of other arrests of Arabs for arms amuggling have been made recently, but were given no publicity.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
