Florida Mayor Threatens Cinema Over Israeli-Palestinian Film

The mayor of Miami Beach is seeking to oust a nonprofit art house cinema from a city-owned property for showing “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning documentary that chronicles the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank.

The mayor, Steven Meiner, introduced a resolution to revoke the lease under which O Cinema rents the space, he announced in a newsletter this week. He described the film as “a false, one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents.”

Kareem Tabsch, the co-founder of O Cinema, said that the threat of losing its physical location in Miami Beach was “very grave and we take it very seriously.”

“At the time, we take very seriously our responsibility as a cultural organization that presents works that are engaging and thought provoking and that foster dialogue,” he said. “And we take very seriously our responsibility to do that without interference of government.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which is now co-counsel for the theater, criticized the mayor’s move, as did the makers of the film, which won the Academy Award for best documentary earlier this month but has not been acquired in the United States by a traditional distributor for either a theatrical or streaming release. Distributors in two dozen other countries had picked up the film even before it won the award.

Daniel Tilley, the legal director of the Florida branch of the ACLU, said in an interview that “what’s at stake is the government’s ability to use unchecked power to punish those who dare to express views that the government disagrees with.”

The city commission, he said, could choose to “move forward with a blatantly unconstitutional resolution and face the consequences of that or let cooler heads prevail and do the right thing by acknowledging that funding a theater means funding an environment of artistic freedom.”

The film was made by two Israeli and two Palestinian filmmakers. Its fate reflects the commercial struggles documentaries face and the polarizing politics that surround the subject of this one. The filmmakers are, in effect, distributing the movie themselves at several dozen theaters.

Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who appears often in the film and is one of its four credited directors, condemned the mayor’s action and took issue with his description of the film as “egregiously antisemitic.”

“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 said in an email. He added: “I believe that once you see the harsh reality of occupation in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, it becomes impossible to justify it, and that’s why the mayor is so afraid.”

Mr. Meiner said in his newsletter that Vivian Marthell, the chief executive of O Cinema, had initially responded to his complaints about the film by agreeing to withdraw the film, but that the theater then changed its mind.

Mr. Tabsch, a documentary filmmaker who also sits on the cinema’s board of directors, said that the original response from Ms. Marthell had been made in a “moment of duress” given that the mayor’s complaints were viewed as “veiled threats about the future of O Cinema in Miami Beach.”

But after conversations with theater staff, the board of directors and other local arts leaders, he said that it became clear “that was not the right course of action.” (Ms. Marthell did not respond to requests for comment.)

“What our community told us overwhelmingly is that they wanted to see this film,” he said, adding that he hoped that an “amicable solution” could be reached.

The resolution would allow the city manager to terminate the lease and seek a tenant “that more accurately reflects the city’s values and/or interests in promoting a safe and inclusive environment for residents and visitors.” It would also revoke tens of thousands of dollars in grant funding that have not yet been paid to the theater.

Mr. Meiner was first elected to the nonpartisan mayoral position in November 2023. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The resolution appeared to be scheduled for the next city commission meeting on Wednesday. It was unclear whether it would pass, though one commissioner, Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, said in an interview that she would oppose the resolution.

Ms. Bhatt said she saw the film solely because of the debate and described it as “very difficult” viewing. She said she had grappled with her response to what it showed, but added, “There are other ways to handle difficult discussions than to punish people who are trying to provide a forum to have them.

Another commissioner, David Suarez, said it was “too soon to say” how he would vote. In response to emailed questions, he noted that “what is clear is that the City will not tolerate the abuse of its taxpayers’ funds by the O Theater.”

“The residents of Miami Beach have made it clear that they wish for our city to do all it can to combat antisemitism and support U.S.-Israel relations,” he added.

And in an email to the community, Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez called the screening “deeply troubling for members of our community.” But she noted the theater’s longstanding practice of hosting the city’s Jewish Film Festival and warned that “knee-jerk reactions that threaten its future will lead to costly legal battles that waste taxpayer dollars.”

The cinema’s website shows that all four of its showings of “No Other Land” next week are sold out.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.