Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner has threatened to kick O Cinema out of a building the city leased to it over its showing of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
The documentary, made by a team of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, centers on the village of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank and the destruction of homes there by Israelis.
Mr. Meiner initially asked the movie theater not to show the film. He noted in a letter that Miami Beach has a large Jewish population, and, citing Israeli and German officials, said the documentary was antisemitic.
“The film director’s comments at the Oscars prove the antisemitic nature of the film using Jew-hatred propaganda and lies such as ’ethnic cleansing.’ Unfortunately, Jews for thousands of years have heard this antisemitic rhetoric; I am just surprised that O Cinema, utilizing Miami Beach taxpayer funding, would willingly disseminate such hateful propaganda,” Mr. Meiner wrote this month.
Mr. Meiner, who was referring to comments made in an Oscars acceptance speech by filmmaker Basel Adra, also brought up the attacks on Israel by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the city’s support for Israel in its fight against those groups.
The West Bank, on the other hand, is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Israel has taken some military actions in the West Bank during its war with Hamas, killing 261 people in 69 airstrikes between Oct. 7, 2023, and Saturday, according to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.
The movie theater initially agreed not to show the film, writing in a reply to Mr. Meiner that “due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming,” but then changed course.
“My initial reaction to Mayor Meiner’s threats was made under duress. … Our decision to screen ’No Other Land’ is not a declaration of political alignment. It is a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard. … Efforts to pressure or censor artistic expression set a dangerous precedent that threatens the creative and intellectual freedoms of all,” O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell told Deadline.
Screenings of the documentary went ahead, though the movie theater has been closed since Wednesday and will be closed until Tuesday so a new screen can be installed and the sound system can be upgraded.
Mr. Meiner has proposed a resolution to kick O Cinema out of Miami Beach’s Old City Hall and to withdraw grant money from the nonprofit running the movie theater. A vote on the resolution is scheduled for Wednesday.
“I am introducing legislation to move on from O Cinema, as permitted by our contract, and seek a cultural partner that better aligns with our community values. It is important to work with organizations that reject any form of hatred, including against the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Mr. Meiner said in a newsletter, according to Florida’s Voice.
Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist and one of the filmmakers who accepted the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, said Mr. Meiner’s attempt to quash the film will not succeed.
“When the mayor uses the word ’antisemitism’ to silence Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it out of meaning,” Mr. Abraham told Deadline, adding that “banning a film only makes people more determined to see it.”
Free speech advocates also decried Mr. Meiner’s move to evict O Cinema.
“Screening movies to make sure they conform to local censors’ tastes is a practice we left behind with the Red Scare. If the First Amendment doesn’t mean that a movie theater can show an Oscar-winning film, something is seriously wrong,” Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression attorney Adam Steinbaugh told WLRN-FM.
