The mayor of Miami Beach on Wednesday backed away from a proposal to evict a nonprofit cinema over its showing of an Academy Award-winning documentary depicting Israeli displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Mayor Steven Meiner announced last week that he wanted to oust the theater, O Cinema, from city-owned property after it showed the film, “No Other Land,” which was largely made in the years leading up to the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023.
Mr. Meiner has repeatedly condemned the film, made by two Israeli and two Palestinian filmmakers, as “one-sided propaganda on the Jewish people.”
But after an emotional City Commission meeting on Wednesday morning, where it became clear that he did not have the votes for the proposal, Mr. Meiner announced that he would withdraw the resolution. He also set aside, at least for now, an alternative measure he had put forward this week that called on the theater to show films in which “the viewpoint of the Jewish people and the State of Israel is fully and accurately presented.”
“This was a discussion that needed to be had — it was a healthy discussion, and I’m glad that we had it,” said Mr. Meiner, who is Jewish. At one point in the meeting, he appeared to hold back tears as he described his fears of antisemitism in the country and the world.
Speaking after the meeting, he added, “I’m actually very happy the way this turned out.”
The debate on Wednesday underscored deep divisions in the city about Mr. Meiner’s initial plan, and whether it was appropriate for the city to evict or even chastise a theater for a movie it chose to show. It also laid bare how the Oct. 7 attack and the subsequent war in Gaza have weighed on residents of Miami Beach, a city with deep Jewish roots.
Mr. Meiner, whose office is nonpartisan, acknowledged the significant backlash he had received during the meeting. There has also been warnings about a costly First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of the theater had it been evicted.
“This is about more than just a film — it’s about the fundamental right of free expression, artistic integrity and the role of independent cinemas in our community,” Vivian Marthell, the chief executive of O Cinema, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear whether and when the commission would vote on the second resolution, which would encourage the theater to also present “films that accurately depict the suffering of the Israeli people resulting from the Oct. 7 attack.” Mr. Meiner said he believed further discussion was needed about its wording.
But a majority of the six-member commission, which is also nonpartisan, said that they would not support evicting the cinema. Several commissioners echoed concerns about antisemitism and the theater’s handling of the mayor’s objections, but said it did not warrant government interference.
“O Cinema, like any institution receiving public funds, has a responsibility, and that responsibility is to ensure that important issues like this current world affair is presented with fairness and with balance,” said Commissioner Alex J. Fernandez. “But that responsibility should not come from a government mandate. If we start policing artistic content today, where does it stop?”
While traditional film distributors have picked up the documentary in at least two dozen countries, none have done so in the United States. Instead, the team behind the film, which won the Academy Award for best documentary this month, has had to ask individual theaters to show the film.
When Mr. Meiner learned that O Cinema was planning to show the film, he wrote to the theater and asked it not to. While Ms. Marthell initially agreed to the request, she then reversed course and the theater sold out every showing, staff members said.
Mr. Meiner then announced he would ask the City Commission to vote to end the theater’s lease of Miami Beach’s former City Hall building, which was renewed last year, and revoke thousands of dollars in planned grant funding.
In a virtual town hall on Tuesday, during which he did not take questions, Mr. Meiner said he had “no regrets” about his initial proposal. At the commission meeting, he framed it as an effort to combat “a double standard” in how Jewish people and antisemitism were treated nationally.
Noting Miami’s large Cuban American population, he said that if “a film that glorified Castro and the revolution” was shown in a heavily Cuban American neighborhood of the city, “I think someone can expect a response.” (In 1991, a city-led effort to evict a Cuban cultural museum in Miami that had featured artists who did not renounce Fidel Castro was rejected by a court as a First Amendment violation.)
Mr. Meiner, whose opening remarks were repeatedly interrupted by shouts of protest from the audience, said: “I think I’m speaking for all the vast majority of Jewish people. There’s a war going on.”
“I’m not talking about the war with guns — I’m talking about the war with propaganda,” he told the crowd, adding, “Every Jewish person that I speak with feels they are a soldier in that war, and this is part of it.”
Mr. Meiner said he felt that O Cinema had an obligation to better reflect the perspective of Israel in the war as part of its programming.
But his condemnation of the film as antisemitic, as well as his effort to punish the theater, has provoked public objections, including from at least one of the filmmakers. Hundreds of filmmakers from across the world wrote to Mr. Meiner and the city commissioners, asking them not to interfere in the theater’s programming decisions.
“Threatening to shut down O Cinema not only stifles free speech, it tells families like my own that their stories don’t matter,” said Charlotte Newhouse al-Sahli, a Miami Beach resident who said that the war has been painful for her family, including her Palestinian husband. “But they do, and this city should not be in the business of erasing them.”
At the meeting on Wednesday, most public commenters were critical of Mr. Meiner, with boos and heckling at times drowning out voices of support for the mayor. Some expressed reservations about the film, but said the theater should be able to choose its own programming.
Several people concerned about both resolutions invoked their Jewish faith, their experiences in Israel or their heritage as descendants of Holocaust survivors.
“It is a place we can go to see not just fine art, but to present the complexities of life and allow us to be more reflective and to grow,” said Ruth Mayer, a Miami Beach resident, who came to the meeting with her Israeli-born husband, Akiva Gross. “It doesn’t mean you have to walk out and agree, but hopefully we can walk out and be reflective.”
Mr. Gross said the film “has to be shown — this is democracy.”
Two mayors of neighboring cities — Esteban L. Bovo Jr., of Hialeah, and Francis Suarez, of Miami — called into the meeting to express support for Mr. Meiner. And Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consul general of Israel in Miami, told the crowd that while he was “totally against censorship of art,” he believed that “it does not take away the responsibility that these institutions have to show the full picture.”
“When it’s being shown on taxpayer-subsidized government venues with public funds, that’s not free speech, it’s government policy,” said Commissioner David Suarez. He added, “play the film wherever you want, on private property, in front of City Hall, on the street corner, but do not ask the taxpayers of Miami Beach to foot the bill for odious propaganda films.”
Supporters of the theater also noted that its programming reflected the demographics of Miami Beach, which has a significant number of Jewish residents, many of whom have strong ties to Israel. The theater has a longstanding partnership with the Miami Jewish Film Festival and shows regular films about the Holocaust, they said.
Mr. Meiner, who took office a month after the Oct. 7 attack, has repeatedly taken hard-line stances in defense of Israel. Among other things, he pushed through new restrictions on protests after several pro-Palestinian rallies took place in Miami Beach.
Amid all the attention, the theater has stepped up its ongoing campaign to raise money so it can open a second location in the Miami area. That venue, organization leaders said, would be rented from a private landlord.
Four sold-out showings of “No Other Land” are scheduled to go forward Wednesday evening and Thursday.
The post Florida Mayor Drops Threat to Evict Cinema Over Israeli-Palestinian Film appeared first on New York Times.
