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Charles Chi Halevi, Chicago, is a free-lance writer.
Listen to the words of Nabih Mangoubi, "We are the forgotten, robbed of property, citizenship and often life itself. We are the other Mideast refugees - Jews expelled or terrorized out of our homes in Arab countries.
"I know this is true. It happened to me and my family, just as it happened to many thousands of others." Mangoubi is an Egyptian Jew who found refuge in the United States.
Now, when Americans believe all Mideast hostages have long ago been released; when the world equates the word "refugee" solely with Palestinians; when peace talks center only on Palestinian claims of land and property, Jews from Arab lands also demand to be heard.
Their agenda is simple, but explosive. They seek freedom of emigration for all Jews held hostage by dictators such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Hafez Assad of Syria. They want compensation for the billions of dollars of property stolen from them when they were expelled from the lands of their birth.
In 1945 more than 800,000 Jews were living in the Arab world, in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. Even before the birth of Muhammed, Jews had dwelled there uninterruptedly.
Today fewer than 25,000 Jews live in Arab lands. Many are prisoners, unable to leave or even move freely within the land of their birth. They exist in fear, their lives and property forfeit to the whims of dictators and mobs.
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