Dear Sir,

The heartbreaking events in Gaza and the West Bank cannot continue unchallenged. A helpless people have lost all hope for the future. For people across the world who have a moral conscience, the facts are soul-wrenching.
The UN children’s agency now says 25 Palestinian children have been killed in the last three months of 2015 alone.
“Serious concerns arose regarding excessive use of force, particularly in relation to incidents where Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli security forces after carrying out or being suspected of carrying out stabbing attacks,” Unicef says  in a report.
It says more than 1,300 Palestinian children were injured during the spike in attacks, almost all in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while three Israeli children were hurt in the West Bank and West Jerusalem.
Unicef cites the example on October 25 in Hebron in the West Bank of a 17-year-old girl who was “taken by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers for a search, shot with at least five bullets and killed”.
Violence and suppression continue in many other parts of the world too. It seems the world has turned its back on victims of tyranny and dictatorship. Planet earth is   awash with the blood of   innocent people.
Anger at injustice is often undergirded by a sense of sadness that this is not the way Almighty Allah intended the world to be.
Genocide is taking place in   across the globe, an evil spawned by the hatred of a few but sustained by the apathy of the many.
It is man’s desire for power that blinds his innate humanity. The oppressed are men and women who possess a commitment to liberty that transcends personal safety and comfort. Syria is in utter ruins. Gaza is a glorified refugee camp, under siege.
The recoil of aggression has left many parts of the globe in ruins. How a government treats its own inhabitants generally is thought to be of no concern of other governments or of international society. Certainly some oppressions or cruelties would warrant the intervention of foreign powers.
The brutal and savage attacks  by certain governments on its own people  is now known to pass in magnitude and savagery any limits of what is tolerable by modern civilisation.
War inevitably is a course of killings, assaults, deprivations of liberty and destruction of property. But inherently criminal acts committed by members of certain  regimes cannot be defended by showing those who commit them were engaged in a war, when war itself is illegal.
War is a violation of international law. We must outlaw war as an instrument of foreign policy.
The present constellation of events in the Middle East will surely lead to chaos and anarchy unless wise men get together and alter the course of history.
Farouk Araie, farouk.araie@telkomsa.net

A proud moment

Dear Sir,

The  adage, “education is the key to success” rings true in Qatar. Recently, a large number of students graduated from various universities in different fields of study in the state.
It was a proud moment to have 40% of the graduates being Qataris. This is an increment witnessed over recent years and foretells a bright future for the nation’s development agenda.
The National Vision, which aims at transforming Qatar into an advanced country by 2030,  cannot be accomplished without an educated workforce.
It is highly encouraging to witness the government putting great emphasis on education through Qatar Foundation and other bodies.
God willing, the percentage of Qatari  graduates will increase.
George Matubia, georgematubia@yahoo.com