The mayor of Miami Beach is about to kick out a film that is independent from the city-owned property after failing to screen other lands, a film about Palestinian evacuation in the West Bank, which just won an Oscar for its best documentary.
Stephen Minor’s proposal will close O Cinema’s lease and withdraw $40,000 in the promised grant funds. In a newsletter sent to residents on Tuesday, Miner denounced the film as “a false, one-sided propaganda attack on Jews who do not align with the values of our city and residents.”
Miner had previously urged O Cinema to cancel the scheduled screening of the documentary, citing criticism from Israeli and German officials. According to the mayor’s newsletter, O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell has allegedly agreed to withdraw the film from programming, citing “anti-Semitic rhetoric concerns,” but Meiner claimed she reversed her decision the following day. Screenings are sold out, and cinemas have added additional dates in March.
“Our decision not to screen other lands is not a declaration of political alignment, but it is a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that all voices deserve to be heard,” Marcel told the Miami Herald.
The Academy Award-winning documentary last week chronicles the horrifying friendship between Palestinian activist Basel Adora and Israeli journalist Yubal Abraham following the destruction of an occupied West Bank Palestinian village.
“To ban the film only makes people more determined to watch it,” Abraham wrote in response to the Guardian’s report on the minor effort on Thursday.
“With witnessing the ethnic cleansing of Israel’s Masafa Yatta, it becomes impossible to justify it. That’s why the mayor is so afraid of our film,” Abraham said in a social media post.
Tensions over freedom of speech and Palestinian activities across the country have risen further this week, former Colombian student activist and green cardholder Mahmoud Khalil, who led the Palestinian solidarity movement at a university camp last year. US President Donald Trump has argued without evidence that Halil has ties to “counter-terrorism, anti-Semitism, anti-American activities.”
White House officials told the free press that Halil, who was arrested without charge, poses a “threat to US foreign policy and national security interests,” and “the allegations here do not mean he was breaking the law.”
A recent Gallup poll shows support for Israel has plummeted to a 25-year low, but Palestinian sympathy has skyrocketed.
Miami Beach commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez shared a negative rating from the film’s mayor, but warned against “Nejerk’s reaction” that could lead to a “cost and legal battle” and said he focused on “a long-standing commitment to the Jewish community.”
The American Civil Liberties Union in Florida calls the mayor’s retaliation against the mayor unconstitutional. “The government cannot choose and choose the perspectives that the public is allowed to listen to, but controversial people may also find them,” Daniel Tilly, the branch’s legal director, told Axios.
Free speech advocates are also mobilizing against what is considered dangerous governments targeting constitutional rights.
“Screening the films and making sure they comply with the preferences of local censors is a practice we left behind in the red horror,” said Adam Steinbow, a lawyer with the Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression.
“If the First Amendment doesn’t mean that cinemas can show Oscar-winning movies, something is grossly wrong.”
Miami Beach faces a controversy over artistic expression in 2019 when the city removed the portrait of Raymond Helis, a black man fatally shot by Beach police from the City Art Project.
The mayor’s proposal to cancel the film’s lease is set to a committee vote next Wednesday.
