Dear Mr John,

Please can you help me and my people.

I live in a small village on the West Bank. My life is difficult. We have no running water, and when I go with my sister to the well we are sometimes abused by the Israeli settlers who live nearby. Once they fired guns at us and told us if we ever came back we’d be shot. We are very afraid.

I have a Jewish friend in that settlement. Our friendship is a secret, as it would bring great shame on both our families. He tells me his family can’t go out alone for fear of being attacked by my people. They must travel in armed convoys. They live in fear. It makes me very sad to see my friend’s family suffering so.

Last year the Israeli soldiers came and took my brother away for questioning. I have not seen him since.

Truly it is a bad time for us all. Papa has no work, and we must make do with very little. Our lives are grim, and we have very little hope that things will get better.

But, Mr John, I think you can help us.

My Jewish friend has the internet, and we sometimes look to see what goes on in the outside world. We always read the New Zealand Herald. It is a wonderful paper, and for us in this awful place it is a pillar of reason, fairness and journalistic integrity. It is the only thing we read online. So when I read that you had singlehandedly resolved a dispute between two implacable foes, I was filled with hope.

Please come to Palestine, Mr John. Your peacemaking skills are needed here more than ever. Only your healing hands can mend the wounds inflicted by generations of violence and bloodshed.

You must come. Please, Mr John.

Yours,
Ahmed

P.S. Please don’t bring your foreign minister, that McCully man. He bad.