Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner on Tuesday introduced legislation to withdraw funding and cancel the lease of O Cinema, an arthouse theater, after it screened the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” which focuses on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“Hate under the banner of ‘culture’ is still hate, perhaps even more dangerously so,” Meiner wrote in a letter to O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell.
The documentary, directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal, depicts the destruction of the occupied West Bank settlement of Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance that develops between a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist.
After Meiner raised concerns about what he termed the film’s “anti-semitic rhetoric,” O Cinema agreed to withdraw its screenings.
“Due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming,” Marthell wrote in a letter dated March 6.
But the following day, they went ahead with their scheduled programming.
“I am a staunch believer in free speech,” said Meiner. “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.”
Meiner filed a measure to be voted on by the Beach city commission next Wednesday that seeks to terminate the city’s relationship with O Cinema by ending the lease for the city-owned facility at Old City Hall and withdrawing financial support.
However, many are concerned about what this move says about free speech and arts.
“I think it’s kind of part of the broader attacks on free speech that the government of Florida and Miami have against its citizens,” said frequent customer and FIU student Conor Moore. “I think it’s pretty shameful that it’s gone to a point where you can’t even screen a movie, irrespective of whether you agree with it or not.”
In its review earlier this year, the New York Times called “No Other Land” audacious and devastating,” adding, “Its subject — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — couldn’t be more consequential, and its approach, which includes a directorial team of two Israelis and two Palestinians, feels genuinely daring and bold.”
