But it started off with a fiery speech not about Middle East politics, but instead about UNLV's student government.
"We ran into barriers trying to bring this forum to the campus," Pete Reilly, co-founder of Organize for Change, told the small crowd. "We wanted the auditorium, but they [The Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada student government, CSUN] said we didn't follow the right process for funding."
Reilly said the real reason they weren't approved for funding was because of the controversial topic of their forum—raising questions about how the student government decides which groups get funding.
"CSUN was hosting these other events ... They'd have big speakers come—it would be in this big room; there'd be hundreds of people in the room because they'd advertise it around campus. And some of the speakers they brought were soldiers that served in Iraq to give their perspective on serving in Iraq," Reilly said.
"They spoke on political issues to give their point of view."
So last spring Reilly and Organize for Change approached student government officials with a concept to bring Palestinian refugees on campus to speak about the Israeli occupation—offering a political point of view.
At first, Reilly said, student government officials were excited about the idea, promising them the resources and funding to cover the costs of the event, including travel and advertising. But things changed in November.
"We all of a sudden get an e-mail saying that the CSUN executive board has decided to not be involved with the event at all," Reilly said. "So we got dropped, and this was like a month before our event. ... We basically got shut out by everyone in CSUN ... and we think that CSUN didn't want to participate because of the politics of the issue."
But Student Body President Jeff Panchavinin said that the decision not to grant promotional and monetary support for the forum was due to the group failing to follow procedural rules, and not because of any political bias.
"The process was not followed," Panchavinin said. "Unfortunately, [the group] went through the wrong venue."
Panchavinin says Organize for Change violated the terms of the Fair Shake Act, a UNLV student government constitutional provision that allocates each student government organization $500 of money a semester—no questions asked—for events, shirts, mixers and anything else having to do with club expenditures. According to that law, each organization must be recognized through an application process, in which they must prove they have at least 12 members.
After groups submit their paperwork, it is up to the student Senate Services Board to approve recognition.
From there, if the group is recognized by CSUN, it can essentially spend $500 on anything it needs, and be reimbursed upon giving receipts to the student government.
But, says Panchavinin, the student organizations cannot use the money to pay for travel of any out-of-town speakers or presenters—which Organization for Change reportedly did.
"We can't pay for flights, travel or board," Panchavinin said. "It's a UNLV policy."
This funding process governs the way all of UNLV's 100-plus student organizations receive money. But Reilly and members of some of UNLV's other more radical student organizations say funding has been withheld from them because of their stance and promotion of controversial issues on campus.
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Back at the forum, Reilly spoke in a twentysomething surfer-gone-educated voice about the history of Zionism and Israel. He was followed by three speakers who are in exile from Palestine to talk about the horrors they've seen back at home.
While the stories of carnage and pleas for attention came from the three, the crowd of about 50 hipsters, students from UNLV's Muslim Student Association and a select few local Muslim activists watched and listened attentively.
"The state of Israel is an apartheid system," speaker Mahmud Ahmad of Al-Awda said. "Except it's on steroids."
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"We haven't heard from anyone [at CSUN] and we have to assume that the reason [we didn't get funding] is because of our political stance," Reilly said. "Whenever far left organizations want to deal with something on campus, [student government] won't touch it."
Alma Castro, co-chair of the UNLV chapter of the Latino rights organization Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, or MeCha, agrees.
"Progressive groups always have problems applying for extra funding," Castro said. "I think [student government officials] are playing politics with us because we bring up issues that are scary. They don't like to be affiliated with controversial groups, so we don't really have good relationships with them."
MeCha, which was instrumental in organizing the massive immigration rights marches this May, used no money from student government for the marches and instead used a combination of money gained via fundraising and from group members' own pockets. Castro said the bureaucratic nature of the process discourages groups like his, and Castro believes that it's aimed at "progressive" groups, because, he said, some of CSUN's members allow their personal politics to influence the reimbursement process.
Another group that claimed to have been denied funding is UNLV Spectrum, UNLV's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization. Conversely, UNLV's Muslim Student Association reported having had no issues obtaining reimbursements for their activities.
Still, whether it's for marching for immigration rights or providing a forum for tales of bloodshed in the Israeli-occupied territories, Reilly and MeCha caution that the funding process should be scrutinized to keep it available to all.
"We're here to bring up issues that are important," Reilly said.
Panchavinin reassured that it's a system open to everyone: "I'm not up here to push a political agenda. ... We're not Democrats or Republicans here at CSUN. It's not about politics when we decide about funding events; it's about policies."