"Every morning I wake up with tanks outside my window," a 10-year-old Palestinian child says. Another child asks, "How would you like it if you didn’t have any water?"

As these children speak, they don’t sound like kids. They sound like adults.

At the 10th Annual Arab Film Festival in San Jose, Sara Morris is learning about a different side of the Israeli occupation in Palestine for the first time. Instead of seeing Israel portrayed as a small, helpless country being terrorized by Palestinians, Morris is shown through Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Palestinian and American voices in the documentary Operation 101 what life is like for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, along with the United States' role and affect on the people.

And her heart is breaking.

“I have children,” the 30-year-old San Jose State University nursing student and mother of four says. “When I look at [the Palestinian children] and see how much they’re suffering and how the world doesn’t care, it hurts me as a mother and as a human being.”

After seeing the film, Morris wants to verify what she has just seen. She pores through web sites and books, finding parallels with the documentary. But it isn’t until October, three months after the film festival, that Morris is angry and tired of bitching, that she decides it's time to take it to another level.

“I didn’t know what difference I would make, but I was going to try,” Morris says.

The idea for Students for Change, Morris' student organization at San Jose State University, was born on Oct. 5, 2006, the same day as the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime Protest.

Students for Change, as it has evolved, aims to raise awareness of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the United States' involvement and its affect on the Palestinian people. According to Morris, the film she saw the day of the film festival showed her the human side of the conflict and now she wants to do the same for others.

“I’m providing a platform for people without a voice,” Morris says.

While her club is not yet official, Morris took over the inactive club, Students for Democracy and requested a name change last semester. Had she started from scratch, it would have taken much longer to get things rolling.

With the help of what she learned in her social activism class, Morris begins to recruit people on San Jose State University’s campus and online for a walkout protesting the Israeli occupation in solidarity with the national protests against the invasion of Iraq already taking place on Oct. 5.

Though 70 people sign up for her demonstration, on Oct. 5, Morris and two of her friends, one of them, Darlene Wallach, who accompanied Morris to the film festival, are the only ones standing outside of Clark Hall. One of her friends holds a sign reading “Israel Stop Targeting and Killing Civilians and Infrastructure.” Morris, waving a Palestinian flag, shouts, "You can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb peace into the world."

Several students walk by and ignore Morris as she tries to recruit people for Students for Change. But as classes let out, several students, like Mohammad Huweih, a Palestinian 21-year-old political science major, meander over towards Morris and her friends to see what the commotion is about.

Now a member of Students for Change, Huweih says, “What baffles me is this white, Christian woman who has nothing to gain financially and socially for the Palestinian cause, is pursuing it even though she has all these responsibilities, the [Muslim Student Association] and Muslims sitting on the sidelines?"

The Palestinian flag catches 18-year-old sociology major and half-Palestinian Karimah Al-Helew’s eye.

“I know the injustices that go on over there, the ones that no one ever hears about,” Al-Helew, who is now an active member of Students for Change, says. “It really impressed me that [Morris] was aware, and even more so, making a stand.”

However, Morris isn’t impressing everyone. On a personal level, Morris' father and grandmother both have not talked to her for three months. As much as it hurts her, Morris says that they believe she is supporting the children of suicide bombers.

The Jewish Student Union and Sue Maltiel, the executive director of Hillel of Silicon Valley, a campus organization whose goal is to help Jewish college students explore their Jewish identity, have expressed concern that Morris is not representing both sides.

At the club’s first event, Breaking the Silence, a former Israeli soldier talks about his experiences in the Israeli Army, complete with photographs and testimonials from other soldiers. He speaks out against the Israeli occupation and the situations he participated in, such as confiscating people’s car keys and rolling over vehicles in the streets with their tanks.

Maltiel and the JSU attend the event. The JSU dominate the Q&A portion of the event and ask, "shouldn’t we focus our attention on Iraq instead?"

Maltiel confronts Morris about a comment the club’s organizer allegedly made that Israel should be dissolved, and Maltiel tells Morris that she is not representing the true situation in Israel. Morris tells her that you see the other side any time you turn on the TV.

Later, Maltiel gives Morris literature from her standpoint consisting of a pamphlet of myths and facts about Israel and a DVD with clips of terrorist acts committed against the Israelis by Palestinians.

Maltiel says all of the club’s programs so far are biased against Israel without dealing with the complexity of the issues in the Middle East.

“Students for Change is only welcoming to those with one perspective,” Maltiel says.

But despite personal and political opposition, Morris is planning for Students for Change to have an even more active presence on San Jose State University's campus this semester. As part of their planned Palestinian Awareness week, full of Palestinian food and music, the club will set up a replica of the Apartheid Wall -- the check point between Israel and the West Bank.

To mimic the harassment the Palestinians endure crossing the checkpoint everyday, the club members plan to harass anyone crossing their mock Apartheid Wall. Morris says there will be photographs and information explaining the Apartheid Wall so people understand the harassment.

“I would just like one person to have the same kind of revelation that I had,” Morris says. “That would make it worthwhile for me.”