Miami Beach cinema draws mayor's ire after showing controversial documentary "No Other Land"
A cinema in Miami Beach is dealing with drama off the scene after its mayor wants to punish the business for showing a controversial documentary.
The documentary "No Other Land' won an Oscar. It was made by a Palestinian-Israeli team and showed a group of Palestinian villages' interaction with the Israeli military in the Southern West Bank.
The O Cinema in South Beach is airing the film at its theatre in the Old Miami Beach City Hall, leased from the city. But they could be booted out and cut off from city grants.
Mayor Steven Meiner calls the movie anti-semitic and a "…one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people…" The commission will vote on a resolution to "terminate for convenience the O Cinema lease" and "immediately discontinue grant funding."
"The mayor of Miami Beach is retaliating against the theater for showing an Oscar-winning film just because he doesn't like the film's perceived viewpoint or message," said Aaron Terr, who is with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
He told CBS News Miami this violates the First Amendment.
"The danger is empowering the government to make decisions about what speech Americans are allowed to hear, what movies they're allowed to watch, what books they're allowed to read," Terr said.
Initially, the theatre put out a statement saying, "Due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming."
But then an apparent about-face, the mayor writing in a newsletter, "Unfortunately, O Cinema reversed course the next day and decided to air the film…"
The Miami Beach City Commission will vote on this next Wednesday. The theatre is set to air the movie next Wednesday and Thursday.
