In the middle of his terrible grief, the father of a young Arab who was gunned down in Jerusalem by Palestinians who mistook him for a Jew has managed to speak important truths. Elias Khoury, a prominent Palestininan lawyer whose son George was murdered while out jogging, was reacting to the arrest of three Palestinians for the killing. He said:

'What is very painful for me here is the clear-cut evidence that there is a state of complete anarchy, disorder and chaos, in addition to the loss of values and people taking the law into their own hands in order to serve, as it were, the Palestinian cause, or supposedly God's interests...Religious leaders need first and foremost ... to see how these young people are influenced to take religious issues and distort them in the ugliest manner. This contradicts the will of God, the Koran, and Islam because they are taking matters into their own hands...There is a complete loss of human values...My message first of all to the religious leaders, the Palestinian leadership, Palestinian society, and to all the enlightened who still value human life in Palestinian society is that they must all rise, gather their courage and say "Enough is enough." We must begin educating our children and these young people about the right path which has respect for human life. We must teach them how a political culture should exist and how law and order should be observed and maintained. These people are committing crimes and damaging Palestinian interests and the religion which they claim to represent or to serve. We need Islamic leaders who will rise and say these things in a loud and clear voice. By staying silent, they only damage Islam and Palestinian society." '

Mr Khoury should be saluted for his moral courage in saying what few in either his own society or among those who support the Palestinian cause in the west are prepared to say.