The mayor of Miami Beach has scuttled his proposal to evict an indie cinema for showing the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land.
Mayor Steven Meiner withdrew his plan during a lively meeting of the Miami Beach City Commission today. He had issued a draft resolution last week calling for his city to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, located at Old City Hall, a property owned by the city.
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The Miami Herald reported that Meiner’s decision came after five of his colleagues said they would oppose the eviction proposal. One commissioner supported it. The paper added that the mayor said during the meeting that he was withdrawing the resolution for an alternative proposal to encourage the theater to show films that “highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint.”
The Herald also quoted Meiner as saying, “I legitimately viewed this as a public-safety threat.”
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The resolution also would have eliminated about $40,000 in grants provided by Miami Beach to the nonprofit that runs the arthouse. O Cinema began screening No Other Land on March 7, five days after it won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
Meanwhile, O Cinema has sold-out screenings of No Other Land set for tonight and Thursday.
The mayor’s move comes two days after more than 600 people including several Oscar winners signed an open letter to the city decrying the theater’s potential shutdown as “an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.”
“O Cinema has a long history of supporting important and diverse viewpoints that foster dialogue,” the letter read. “We as filmmakers invite critical discussion of any film, but your decision to punish O Cinema for screening No Other Land is an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment. It is also an offense to the people of Miami Beach, and Greater Miami as a whole, who deserve to have access to a diverse range of films and perspectives.”
“The community has spoken clearly today: They will not tolerate censorship of the arts,” Haskell said. “We will remain vigilant against future retaliation against O Cinema and other cultural institutions for choosing to portray or not portray a particular viewpoint.”
No Other Land, directed by a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, provides a ground-level view of life for Palestinian residents of the rural Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank who live under an expulsion order by the Israel Defense Forces, which wants the land for a military training zone. The documentary shows IDF forces knocking down Palestinian homes and schools pursuant to the expulsion order, as well as violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.