Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner is pushing to evict a theater from a city-owned space after the theater screened Oscar-winning documentary film No Other Land. He claims it’s antisemitic.
The documentary, which produced by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian documentary filmmakers, chronicles the destruction of a Palestinian village by Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank.
The film won an Academy Award for best documentary feature film earlier this month and has received universal critical acclaim, with a 100% rating on the critic aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. But it has also faced backlash on claims that it is antisemitic, even though two of the four directors are Jewish.
Meiner had asked O Cinema on South Beach not to screen the film, calling it ‘hateful propaganda.' After initially agreeing to stop presentations, the cinema screened it to sold-out audiences. It is currently scheduled to have four more screenings on March 19 and 20.
Screenings of the film are also scheduled to take place this weekend at the Coral Gables Art Cinema. Coral Gables owns the building where the Art Cinema operates.
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O Cinema CEO Vivian Martell told the Miami Herald a short speech would be read at every screening, explaining that the decision to show the film is "not a declaration of political alignment. It is, however, a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard, even, and perhaps especially, when it challenges us.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which has a long history of battling local governments against alleged censorship and violations of the freedom of speech, wrote in a post on X: "We’re closely monitoring this issue and remain committed to ensuring that a variety of voices on issues important to Miami Beach residents can continue to be heard."
Adam Steinbaugh, a staff attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told WLRN in a statement: "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."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its Florida chapter also criticized the Miami Beach mayor for dismissing free speech rights.
"Mayor Steven Meiner fails to unite Miami Beach residents, visitors, or anyone who does not subscribe to his blind support for the genocidal Israeli government," said CAIR-Florida Communications Director Wilfredo Ruiz in a statement.
Added CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell: “Mayor Meier's attempt to punish a movie theatre for showing a documentary critical of a foreign government is an un-American and unconstitutional attack on free speech and the humanity of Palestinians. We urge the Miami Beach city government to reject this un-American act of censorship.”
O Cinema has operated at the historic old City Hall building on Washington Avenue, which also houses the Miami Beach District Court since 2019. The nonprofit also operated North Beach's historic Byron Carlyle Theater from 2014 to 2018.
In a statement, Meiner said he believes in free speech but that screening the film was unacceptable in a city-owned facility. The Miami Beach mayor has presented a resolution asking the city commission evict the theater. The resolution will be heard at the city meeting on March 19.
O Cinema management officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment to WLRN.
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