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[Kagus]

Didn't we just go over this? The forceful relocating of a people is technically classed as genocide, even if no overt killing was involved.

[Reelya]

not so, which is why I brought up the legal definition of genocide.

https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective

While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians.

Genocide is a term that has both sociological and legal meaning. The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin. For Lemkin, “the term does not necessarily signify mass killings.” He explained:

    More often [genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. Genocide is directed against a national group as an entity and the attack on individuals is only secondary to the annihilation of the national group to which they belong.

It's not hard to collate a list of things Israel is doing that seem orchestrated to cause the demise of "palestinian" as an ethnic group, according to Lemkin's definition. Banning flags, banning marriage - laws to restrict marriages and having children are actually explicitly listed in the known genocide tactics in the UN's legal definition of genocide, and Israel does this ... attempts to ban or downgrade the use of arabic language, herding people off their ancestral lands, preventing worship at their religious sites, etc etc. all count as part of genocide according to Raphael Lemkin - the guy who coined the term in the first place, and the basis for the term as a legal crime.

[martinuzz]

Perhaps that is the legal definition in the US, according to a US non profit organisation. Israel is not in the US though.
The official legal definiton of Genocide according to the UN, as stated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, and adopted by the ICC is as follows:

... any of the following acts committed with

intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily harm, or harm to mental health, to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

  Some would argue that (c) is taking place in Gaza, but I have to disagree. Gaza's isolation is not as desperate that people can do nothing but lay down and die. It's not impossible to provide a living for oneself in Gaza. Israel does not systematically withold food, water or humanitarian aid from Gaza. Hamas does, and then tells their voters it's Israel doing that.

[Reelya]

well they've consistently done (a), just look up accounts of settlers attacking local arabs. they've done (b) including by blockading food aid, medical supplies and the like from the occupied territories, among other things. (c) I'd argue, is clear, see the last bajillion articles, some below. (d) can be inferred from things like banning married palestinians from living together and similar laws.

Regarding the situation in Gaza, it's not hard to find sources disputing what you're saying:

https://www.ochaopt.org/theme/gaza-blockade

Israel has imposed movement restrictions on the Gaza Strip since the early 1990’s. Restrictions intensified in June 2007, following the takeover of that part of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) by Hamas, when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, citing security concerns. Despite relaxation of some blockade-related restrictions in recent years, 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza remain ‘locked in’, denied free access to the remainder of the territory and the outside world. The blockade has undermined the living conditions in the coastal enclave and fragmented the oPt and its economic and social fabric.

And Israel's blockade does, e.g. prevent Gaza from having working water supplies. They had to beg the EU to help them, but it's not really enough.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-gaza-water/gazas-water-shortage-worsening-no-easy-solutions-seen-idUSKBN15A1FC
It took 20 years of negotiation to get the Israelis to agree to sell them a little water, which ended up being a whopping 2.5% of their total needs. meanwhile, the aquifer is running out.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/13/israel-record-low-gaza-medical-permits

(Jerusalem) – The record-low rate of permits issued by Israel for Palestinians seeking vital medical treatment outside Gaza underlines the urgent need for Israel to end its decade-long closure of the Gaza Strip, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said today in a joint statement.

Israeli authorities approved permits for medical appointments for only 54 percent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organization (WHO) began collecting figures in 2008. WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial or delay of their permits.

“We’re seeing Israel increasingly deny or delay access to potentially life-saving cancer and other treatment outside Gaza, with shockingly high numbers of Palestinian patients subsequently dying, while Gaza’s healthcare system – subjected to half a century of occupation and a decade of blockade – is decreasingly able to meet the needs of its population,” said Aimee Shalan, CEO of MAP.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler: NSFW rendition of reasons the UK should not exist (click to show/hide)

Can anyone stop the rise of the hard left? Is the future of the UK a hung parliament? Will Ed Balls rejoin the cabinet? Can the Prime Minister handle an out of control Johnson? Can Jezza stop Tories from giving him a soft Brexit?

These are important questions which must be covered by the BBC.

Also how screwed up is it that even in r34, the greens are more relevant than the libdems oh my god that's grim ahahah, when you lose to the GREENS

[TD1]

From the looks of that poster, it might be a well hung parliament.

[martinuzz]

The nuclear reactor in Doel (Belgium) has been shut down, after a leakage was discovered in the reactor.
The government states that there is no danger to the public.
The power plant management says that fixing the leak is very difficult, because it is in the most radioactive part of the reactor, and safety of employees is primary concern.

It's not the first time this reactor has been shut down because of problems.
Slightly concerned, cause it's not that far from my home town. Doel lies at the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. The Doel reactor has been subject of political dispute between Belgium and the Netherlands, for safety reasons.

Doel was also the prime cause for the Belgian government to mass distribute iodine tablets to everyone within a certain radius of the reactor, just a few months ago. They damn well know the thing is old, and has safety issues, but they refuse to shut it down.

[hector13]

If it’s the only thing supplying power to the region then yeah, I can’t imagine the government is willing to shut it down.

However, you would hope they’re trying to remedy that so they can shut it down safely, before that choice is forced upon them.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm intrigued as to whether there may be an unintended side effect of a great reduction in diseases related to iodine deficiency in Belgium

[ChairmanPoo]

I'm intrigued as to whether there may be an unintended side effect of a great reduction in diseases related to iodine deficiency in Belgium

Short answer is "no"
Longer answer: iodine deficiency is not a major problem in the developed world, as access to salt enriched with iodine is widespread

[martinuzz]

I'm intrigued as to whether there may be an unintended side effect of a great reduction in diseases related to iodine deficiency in Belgium

They haven't taken the pills yet, it's just that everyone got them delivered by mail (I think, maybe they had to go collect them at the nearest pharmacy), with the instructions only to use them in case of nuclear disaster.

EDIT: hmm. de Volkskrant report on the Doel reactor says the leak is not radioactive. It is a leak in the emergency cooling system for preventing meltdowns. Repairs are expected to take months, I guess to get to the leak repairmen will still need to cross radioactive territory.

Late last year, Greenpeace described the Doel reactor as 'vulnerable'. A plane crash, or terrorist attack is a bigger concern than technical failure, because the cooling basins for temporary storage of reactor fuel are situated outside of the reactor bunker.

[smjjames]

I guess nobody bothered while desiging said reactor to think about how people would carry out repairs in places otherwise too radioactive to venture into.

A leak in the emergency system is still pretty bad though.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm intrigued as to whether there may be an unintended side effect of a great reduction in diseases related to iodine deficiency in Belgium

Short answer is "no"
Longer answer: iodine deficiency is not a major problem in the developed world, as access to salt enriched with iodine is widespread

Widespread but not universally adopted, problems remain problems even after their severity has reduced, much in the same way that tooth decay remains an issue despite its reduction in severity.

I guess nobody bothered while desiging said reactor to think about how people would carry out repairs in places otherwise too radioactive to venture into.

A leak in the emergency system is still pretty bad though.

If the Soviets and Japan are any example to go by, in the event of a disastrous leak with radiation rendering safe repair inadvisable, you send in people who are willing to die or do not know the risks

[Dorsidwarf]

Well, a certain Amber Rudd has resigned after repeatedly lying to MPs (though she insists she "accidentally misled" them. For the record, she made up stuff, got proven wrong, made an excuse, and the excuse was shown to be a lie). Not exactly sure what this means for the government right now, but I suspect it's gonna cause a loss of confidence in it across the UK.

I guess we finally find out if the UK confidence-in-government meter has an integer underflow error and wraps around to 255%

[Loud Whispers]

Well, a certain Amber Rudd has resigned after repeatedly lying to MPs (though she insists she "accidentally misled" them. For the record, she made up stuff, got proven wrong, made an excuse, and the excuse was shown to be a lie). Not exactly sure what this means for the government right now, but I suspect it's gonna cause a loss of confidence in it across the UK.

ABOUT FUCKING TIME :D

For context, the lie she made was really fucking blatant too. She said the UK government did not have a deportation quota, Amber Rudd said there were no such quotas, some sneeky breeky lad or lady leaked documents from the Home Office that there were quotas, Amber Rudd denied any knowledge of these documents - which then prompted calls from oppostion benchers, "how the /f do you not know what goes on in your department?" To which I presume she responded "lel idk" and resigned. She didn't understand security, immigration or the internet, she never should have been put in charge in the first place.

Her replacement Sajid Javid is an unknown quantity to me. His faith, his foreign policy have thus far made a good impression upon me, as have criticisms levied against him that he is as Tory as Tory gets. Yet his choice of criticisms against others leaves me with the impression that he is like the rest, an unimaginative politician amidst a sea of unimaginative politicians, as shown in his choice of the Tory power pose:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That Thatcher is his guiding idol in political principle concerns me, that his guiding idol in philosophical principles is Ayn Rand deeply concerns me, and makes me wonder if replacing Amber Rudd with Sajid Javid was like replacing the Yorkshire Terrier with a Wolf.