The City of Miami Beach and Mayor Steven Meiner recently announced a resolution to stop the city's lease agreement with O Cinema following the theatre's decision to proceed with a film the city deemed "antisemitic."
The resolution comes after Steven Meiner sent a letter to O Cinema on the film "No Other Land", which he called a "one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents."
"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 attack by the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. 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," Meiner said.
"The film director's comments at the 0scars prove the antisemitic nature of the film using Iew-hatred propaganda and lies such as "ethnic cleansing." Unfortunately, Jews for thousands of years have heard this antisemitic rhetoric; I am just surprised that O Cinema, utilizing Miami Beach taxpayer funding, would willingly disseminate such hateful propaganda," Meiner continued.
Notably, Miami Beach has one of the highest concentrations of Jewish residents in the United States.
O Cinema, which operates from the city-owned theatre on Washington Avenue, initially agreed to pull the film after Meiner's concerns. In a letter, O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell acknowledged No Other Land depicted "antisemitic rhetoric" and said it would withdraw the film before reversing its decision.
"Our intentions are always to bring our community together for meaningful dialogue around cinema. This film has exposed a rift which makes us unable to do the thing we’ve always sought out to do which is to foster thoughtful conversations about cinematic works," Marthell initially said.
On its website, No Other Land is described as an "eye-opening, vérité-style documentary, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four directors over the course of five years." The movie "provides a harrowing account of the systematic onslaught of destruction experienced by Masafer Yatta, a group of Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank, at the hands of the Israeli military."
Despite pushback, the film is scheduled for our showings this week.
Along with Meiner, other Miami Beach officials have rallied in support of the Jewish State following attacks by Iran and its terrorist proxies Hezbollah and Hamas since Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023.
