Steven Meiner, the mayor of Miami Beach, is attempting to terminate the lease and pull public funding of an independent cinema in the city in retaliation for screening the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land.
The film, directed by Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham, follows a journalist's attempts to protect his West Bank village from Israeli settlers. Meiner deemed the film a "false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents," in a newsletter sent to the city's residents on Tuesday.
The mayor had publicly urged O Cinema to cancel screenings of the documentary, which is being independently distributed by the filmmakers to select cinemas across the US after being shunned by studios.
"Here in Miami Beach, our city has adopted a strong policy of support for the State of Israel in its struggle to defend itself and its residents against attacks by the terrorist organistions Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to the letter. “Airing performances of the one-sided, inaccurate film No Other Land at a movie theater facility owned by the city and operated by O Cinema is disappointing.”
O Cinema's chief executive Vivian Marthell told the Miami Herald that the institution's decision to screen No Other Land "is not a declaration of political alignment. It is, however, a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard".
If the mayor's proposal is successful, the cinema would be evicted and lose a proposed $40,000 in promised grant funding. The move is set for a commission vote next Wednesday.
No Other Land won Best Documentary at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, with director Adra using his acceptance speech to call on the world "to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people”.
Three million Palestinians and about 500,000 Israeli Jews call the occupied West Bank home. According to Israeli non-profit group Peace Now, more than 50 square kilometres of the territory was annexed in 2024 – more than in any previous calendar year.
The Miami mayor's move against the publicly funded cinema is another move by US political figures against Palestinian activism, with Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student, green card holder and activist, detained by immigration authorities last week and threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests last year.
