Chapter 21
In addition to her classes with Buffy Willow had a social studies class that often discussed current events, both in America and around the world. On this Mondy they began discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most students didn't follow the news well enough to have a strong opinion one way or the other. If the teacher had a strong opinion he kept it to himself. He just wished his students would pay attention to the world around them. Only two students seemed to have strong opinions, Willow Rosenberg and Charles Gunn. Willow and Gunn didn't know each other well but got along okay, normally. But on this issue they had very different opinions. As a young Jewish woman Willow felt great empathy for the Israeli people. To her it was a nation founded by refugees, fleeing from anti-semetic persecutions by the Nazis and many others. But Gunn, as a young Muslim, felt empathy for the Palestinian refugees. To him it seemed that Israel was the zionist occupation that had displaced the rightful inhabitants of the holy land. During this heated debate neither Willow nor Gunn seemed able to see the other side's point of view. It seemed that arguing that Palestinian children had the right to go to school without Israeli shells being shot at them somehow meant that you supported suicide bonbings of Israeli school buses. Or that arguing that Israeli children had the right to go to school without the bus being blown up meant you supported lobbyig shells at Palestinian civilians. This feud had been going on for generations and showed little signs of ending. And for better or worse the conflict also seemed to prevent Willow Rosenberg and Charles Gunn from being friends.