CPTnet
February 27, 2003
HEBRON: The Ladder Lady

By Art Gish

I went on school patrol with three other Christian Peacemaker Team members
in Hebron this morning, something we do each morning to protect
Palestinian children from Israeli settlers who often harass them as they
go to school, and to help get the children past Israeli soldiers who often
prevent them from getting to school.

This morning, as we started on our way, settler children threw stones at
us. One of the soldiers who watched the attack cursed us and told us to
leave. A settler cursed us and another settler greeted us with his middle
finger.

Then I met the "ladder lady." I had heard so much about her. Each
morning she puts down a crude homemade ladder from a rooftop of the Old City
to let between twenty and thirty children from her neighborhood get out of
the Old City so they can go to school. She puts it down again in the
afternoon when the children return. The Israeli military has put up gates to
prevent them entering or leaving from the street.

Kristin and I helped set up the ladder, and watched the beautiful little
girls scramble down the ladder. They are quite good at it. This morning
there were only girls, because Israeli military did not allow the boys'
school to open once again today.

I felt I was given a sacred privilege as I walked with the girls to their
school. I felt unworthy to even walk beside these girls, their smiling
faces so full of hope and expectation. I also felt a deep disgust that
anyone could be so perverse as to threaten young girls or try to prevent
them from going to school, and that my government supports these
obscenities.

The children, however, have not yet lost hope. They are determined to go
to school, no matter what. They walk past the settlers and soldiers. They
even walk through the tear gas that is so common here recently.