“Death to Arabs” sprayed on Palestinian houses by israeli settlers. | PNN

Overnight this last Thursday, Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian village of al-Mazraa al-Qabalia northwest of Ramallah area and vandalized two Palestinian houses.The israeli settlers sprayed racist graffiti saying “Death to Arabs”in Hebrew on the houses walls and broke several windows, according to the israeli news website The Times of Israel. Israeli police have said that they are investigating the attack.According to the israeli media, “the vandalism may have been part of a series of so-called price tag hate-crime attacks, usually arson and graffiti, which are used by Jewish extremists to target non-Jews — including homes, churches and mosques — as revenge for actions by Israeli officials and for Palestinian terror attacks”.

Source: “Death to Arabs” sprayed on Palestinian houses by israeli settlers. | PNN

‘There is a massive paranoia’: UK Muslims on life after Paris | World news | The Guardian

Omar Raza was walking near his home in Glasgow’s south side when he was confronted by three men hurling racist abuse, calling him a “fucking Paki” and accusing him of funding Islamic State.“It was three against one, so I tried to defuse the situation and walk past them. But I was suddenly attacked from behind and put in a head lock.” Raza was kicked to the ground and the bag he was carrying upturned and its contents strewn across the pavement, before his attackers ran off.“It all happened so quickly,” he told the Guardian on Thursday ahead of Friday prayers at Glasgow Central mosque. “Of course I’ve been the victim of hate speech before, but never a physical assault. You hear a lot of stories from down south but the south side of Glasgow is supposed to be a diverse community. It’s obvious that what’s going on [in Paris] is seeping into society and a lot of people are acting on half-truths.”

Source: ‘There is a massive paranoia’: UK Muslims on life after Paris | World news | The Guardian

Everyday slights are just as harmful to women as more blatant sexism | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian

Just because some kinds of sexism aren’t obvious, though, doesn’t mean that they aren’t horrible. Julia Cheiffetz, then a books editor at Amazon (she edited my last book), was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter. After getting surgery for the disease, Cheiffetz got a form letter informing her that her health insurance was terminated. She was told it was a “glitch”. When she returned to work after maternity leave, Cheiffetz recounts, she was slowly sidelined.Being “mommy-tracked” – passive aggressively forced to leave your job once you have children – is not new or uncommon. But like other forms of more silent sexism, it’s hard to prove. Of course, even when women do have hard evidence of work discrimination, they’re dismissed: when Evans brought up pay disparity to a male superior at Gawker she wrote that she was told not to “dick-measure over salary”.

Source: Everyday slights are just as harmful to women as more blatant sexism | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian

‘Americans saved my life’: former refugees from Iraq perplexed by US fears | World news | The Guardian

As one of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds displaced by the Persian Gulf war, Sindi knows firsthand the plight of refugees fleeing conflict and recalls as though it were yesterday the sense of desperation looming over temporary resettlement camps.Sindi remembers the daily uncertainty confronted by his family when placed at a refugee camp lacking the most basic of resources. The image of food and supplies airdropped by American planes under Operation Provide Comfort stays with him to this day – it was what motivated Sindi to accept two deployments training and advising US troops after the country’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.“Americans saved my life,” Sindi told the Guardian. “And so I worked with them and returned the favor.”After gaining US citizenship in 2006, he went on to spend four years in Iraq, from 2009 to 2012. There, Sindi served as an interpreter for the US military and in the security detail for vice-president Joe Biden and senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham during their trips to Erbil.To Sindi, his story is about more than goodwill toward the country he has now called home for two decades. It’s about the trust placed in him, a native of Zakho, Iraq, by the US government.“I was a refugee, I came from nowhere, and I reached the point where I could be in a convoy with the vice-president of America in Iraq,” Sindi said.

Source: ‘Americans saved my life’: former refugees from Iraq perplexed by US fears | World news | The Guardian

transgender murders up

Death by death, the details are horrific. Kiesha Jenkins was beaten and shot dead by a cluster of assailants in Philadelphia. Tamara Dominguez was run over multiple times and left to die on a Kansas City street. Police said the most recent victim, Zella Ziona, was shot dead in Gaithersburg, Maryland, last month by a boyfriend embarrassed that Ziona showed up in the presence of some of his other friends.There’s no question that anti-transgender hatred fueled many of the killings, yet activists and social-service professionals say there are multiple factors that make transgender women of color vulnerable. They have documented that numerous victims were killed by intimate partners and many while engaging in prostitution.

Source: News from The Associated Press

Syrian Family Diverted From Indiana Feels ‘Welcomed’ in Connecticut – The New York Times

“He actually made me concerned,” F. said. She added that she thought that in America, “people are accepted regardless of their backgrounds or what their ideologies are.”Still, in a relaxed hourlong interview in a sunny children’s classroom on the second floor of the immigrant resettlement agency, with their son playing with wooden blocks at their feet, the couple said they wanted to disprove the misconceptions people might have of refugees.“You have to imagine that people are in Syria, the bombs are falling on them, they can’t live in their homes, they leave, they live in Jordan, and it’s still difficult for them,” A. said. “And then they find this opportunity to live a better life and they take it. That’s what people have to recognize.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyThe family was living in the Syrian city of Homs when the civil war broke out. A.’s used clothing store was destroyed. “We had to move from street to street to avoid the bombs,” he said.

Source: Syrian Family Diverted From Indiana Feels ‘Welcomed’ in Connecticut – The New York Times

Avian Flu Diary: CDC Updated Travel Notices: Chikungunya In Mexico & Central America

Local transmission of chikungunya is now being reported in other countries in Central America. See map. As of November 24, 2014, the following Central American countries have reported cases of chikungunya:BelizeCosta RicaEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanama

Source: Avian Flu Diary: CDC Updated Travel Notices: Chikungunya In Mexico & Central America