Miami Beach, Florida – The mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, wants to terminate a lease and reduce financial support for an independent film theater that projected a Oscar -winning documentary about the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.
Mayor Steven Meiner introduced a resolution that describes the film “No other land” as an anti -Semitic. The city commissioners will discuss the resolution on Wednesday during their next meeting.
“No Other Land” opened last Friday in O Cinema, located in the historic Miami Beach City Council. Meiner had contacted several days before the premiere to discourage the CEO of O Cinema Vivian Marthell to show the film.
“The city of Miami Beach has one of the highest concentrations of Jewish residents in the United States,” Meiner said in his letter to Marthell. “The movie ‘No Other Land’ is a unilateral propaganda attack against the Jewish people that are not consistent with the values of our city and residents.”
Marthell initially agreed not to project the film in a response to Meiner, but the presentation continued as scheduled. Marthell did not respond immediately to an email for comments.
In December and January, the city of Miami Beach executed two subsidies worth approximately $ 80,000 for the cinema or, according to the resolution proposed by the mayor. Around half of the money has already been paid, but the resolution would stop the rest. The city began to lease space for cinema in 2019 with the ability to terminate the contract with 180 days of notification, which is what Meiner is trying to do.
“No other land”, which was filmed between 2019 and 2023 and launched last year, was directed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
“When the mayor uses the word anti -Semitism to silence the Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it by meaning,” Abraham said in an email. “It seems to me that it is very dangerous.”
The film documents the destruction of the Palestinian villages in the West Bank by the Israeli army. He won the Academy award for the best documentary function, as well as previous awards.
While the film has gained wide praise of film critics, it has also generated controversy.
“Freedom of expression is an important value, but Israel’s defamation in a tool for international promotion is not art,” said Israeli Minister Miki Zohar in a social networks mail.
