A movie theater renting space from the city of Miami Beach is being threatened with a loss of their lease and a cut off in funds for showing the winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, “No Other Land.”
The film was harshly criticized by the Israeli government and pro-Israel critics as propaganda. Directed by two Israelis and two Palestinians, it tells the story of the destruction of Masafer Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, by the Israeli military. The one-sided portrayal of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank was harshly criticized by Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar.
“Freedom of expression is an important value, but turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art — it is sabotage against the State of Israel, especially in the wake of the October 7th massacre and the ongoing war,” he added.
The film was shot between 2019 and a few days after the October 7, 2023, attacks that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians.
Israel Bachar, Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles, suggested viewers watch videos from Oct. 7 of “slaughtering entire families, kidnapping the elderly and infants, and committing every crime against humanity. That is the real documentary!”
Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said on Wednesday that he was going to ask the city council to tear up the lease for O Cinema, which has had several screenings of “No Other Land” and plans several more.
In a newsletter sent to residents Tuesday night, Mayor Steven Meiner explained his objections over the documentary “No Other Land,” which has had several showings at O Cinema, an art house film cinema in South Beach, despite pressure from Meiner to cancel the screenings. He called the film, which won an Academy Award last week but has faced criticism from supporters of Israel, “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.”
Meiner is now introducing city legislation that seeks to terminate the lease agreement with the cinema, which rents space from the city at the old City Hall on Washington Avenue, and to immediately cut all city funding.
In recent months, the city agreed to fulfill two grant agreements with O Cinema — one for $25,831 and one for $54,071 — and has already paid half of those amounts, according to the proposal. Meiner is now moving to cancel the rest.
Not having seen the documentary, I can’t judge for myself the film’s veracity. But the only objection to the film by the Palestinians is that it violates the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS)” movement.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, or PACBI, claims that the film “normalizes” the Israeli occupation.
“The BDS movement has always fought against normalization as a powerful weapon employed by oppressors to whitewash their crimes, to colonize the minds of the oppressed, and to undermine global solidarity with the struggle to end oppression,” PACBI said.
O Cinema originally declined to run the film, citing its antisemitic character.
“Due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming,” O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell wrote in a letter to Mayor Meiner on March 6. “This film has exposed a rift which makes us unable to do the thing we’ve always sought out to do which is to foster thoughtful conversations about cinematic works.”
Then the film won the Academy Award, and all of a sudden, O Cinema realized they were the only theater in town screening it. Cha-Ching.
Related: Whether to Deport Khalil Is a Close Call. And That’s a Good Thing.
Meiner was getting some backlash on social media.
“I am a staunch believer in free speech. But normalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach, after O Cinema conceded the ‘concerns of antisemitic rhetoric,’ is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated,” the mayor wrote in response.
Meiner’s argument is sound. If Miami Beach residents want to view propaganda, they can see it on their own dime. To ask Jewish residents to allow their tax dollars to support a theater showing only one side of a complex issue — a side determined to eradicate Jews from the Middle East — is grossly unfair and borders on obscenity.
Your favorite PJ Media writers are working hard to bring you the best opinions and news in the business. Support us by becoming a VIP Member! We’re giving you a 60% discount on the regular VIP Membership with the promo code “FIGHT.” Click here to receive your discount.
