In the last week, Miami Beach has rapidly become an international news story as the local government seeks to silence opposition to Zionism through baseless accusations of antisemitism, but this kind of authoritarian repression of pro-Palestine perspectives isn’t a new development – either internationally or locally. Instead, based on the City’s recent history, it is predictable: Mayor Steven Meiner wants to censor the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, and is using the power of his office to try to retaliate against a local movie theater for screening it. The documentary exposes the reality of Israeli apartheid in the occupied West Bank, and a key item on Mayor Meiner’s agenda is support of Israel. And what we’re seeing here in South Florida is just a microcosm of similar governmental campaigns worldwide to shut down all criticism of the State of Israel.
Mayor Meiner has now introduced a resolution that, if passed, would revoke local art house movie theater O Cinema’s lease and withdraw more than $40,000 in city grant funding. The resolution is being introduced this week at the Miami Beach City Commission meeting for a vote. Opposition has been fierce, and it is coming from different perspectives. While all those opposing the resolution rightly describe it as anti-democratic, unconstitutional, and a violation of free speech, some of those same people are condemning the movie and even calling it antisemitic. At this moment, we believe that it is crucial for groups in South Florida fighting for Palestinian justice to be able to say loudly and firmly that this censorship reflects the City’s anti-Palestinian climate and history that we have been resisting at every opportunity.
What is happening right now in Miami Beach is part of the ongoing attempt by the Mayor to impose his support for Israel and its genocide against the Palestinian people on the city. It’s a pattern we recognize as anti-Zionist Jewish activists in South Florida who have faced these accusations ourselves and who teach about the risks of misrepresenting the very real dangers that white supremacist and white nationalist violence pose for so many of our communities. Mayor Meiner’s actions are just yet another egregious example of the pervasive pattern of antisemitism accusations being weaponized to shut down any criticism of Israel and to penalize and harm those fighting for Palestinian justice.
Meiner has been relentlessly pursuing this agenda by shutting down protests in support of Palestine; by implementing an unconstitutional anti-protest law in response to the protests; by giving enormous sums of taxpayer dollars–money that should be used to address the needs of the city’s residents–to support Israel’s violence; and by shutting community members down (literally turning off their mics during public meetings) if they criticize Israel. As the national news cycle is discovering Mayor Meiner’s plan to censor an Oscar-winning film and punish an independent theater for screening it, we want to make it very clear that this is not an aberration. Like our current national leadership, the Mayor’s behavior is anti-democratic at its core.
Mayor Meiner’s attempt to censor No Other Land is based on false premises. Despite the Mayor’s uninformed accusations, depicting the reality of Israeli occupation is obviously not antisemitic. As one of us knows first-hand from having spent time in Masafer Yatta, where the film takes place, the documentary is a painfully accurate depiction of what life is like under Israel’s occupation. Shutting down the film does not erase Israel’s violence; in fact, preventing the facts from being told enables the violence and makes us complicit in that violence.
The mayor’s actions are part of a global reactionary movement seeking to dismantle fundamental rights, and his behavior is reminiscent of actual antisemites. In 1920, a Reich Film Law was enacted establishing a Censorship Committee. Later amended in 1934, this law designated a Reich Film Supervisor to examine scripts, and gave this Supervisor the authority to accept or reject films based on their content. Local censors could control and even ban “troublesome movies,” just like Meiner is trying to do in Miami Beach. Like President Trump, and like Governor DeSantis, the Mayor of Miami Beach lacks any commitment to democracy and acts without integrity or principle or accountability to his constituents. Trying to shut this film down and retaliating against a theater for screening it is just one such example. (We know there have been principled disagreements about the film; however, this is anything but that.)
Miami Beach residents have a right to see the film, and O Cinema has a right to screen it without government censorship by an authoritarian mayor. Millions of people across the globe, including hundreds of thousands of Jewish people, are calling out for justice for the Palestinian people and understand that the problem is not depicting the reality of Israel’s brutality, but denying it and not vociferously opposing it. As we say at our protests, “never again is now,” and we refuse to be silent in the face of fascism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
This article, together with others I’ve been reading recently, comes as a bit of a shock to UK voters such as myself. The shock is this: the amount of arbitrary power Americans grant to their politicians with their votes. No Other Land was broadcast (free to air) by Channel 4 in the UK and is still available on their website. If there were any objections to it, I didn’t get to hear of them, and no politician has the power to penalise any organisation broadcasting or showing in a cinema a controversial film.
That’s not quite true. Thames Television, back in the 1980s, broadcast a documentary, Death on the Rock, about the shooting of three IRA terrorists by the SAS in Gibraltar, that had witness testimony that disputed official accounts of what happened. When Thames TV’s broadcasting licence came up for renewal, the Thatcher government blocked it. And, of course, just recently, the BBC took Gaza: how to survive in a war zone off its website after complaints, but that was caving in to pressure, not some politician issuing a decree.
In the US, the absurd amount of power politicians have is well illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the renowned Kennedy Center, ousting its chair and board members. (Mind you, why on earth the place had to have a board chosen by party allegiance is a mystery to me.) Similarly, the fact that politicians appoint judges (or that they are elected along party lines) is nothing but an invitation to corruption and miscarriages of justice.
To return to the subject of this article, it is deeply disturbing that politicians in the US can tell schools and libraries what books they may not stock, what subjects teachers may not teach, what areas of research scientists may not study, etc.
Once you stop conflating Israel with Judaism your thinking will become a lot clearer.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote this article recently:
Gareth Evans, the former Australian foreign minister and past president of the International Crisis Group, summed up the issue well:
Calling out China for its persecution of Uighurs is not to be a Sinophobic racist. Calling out Myanmar for its crimes against Rohingya people is not to be anti-Buddhist. Calling out Saudi Arabia and Egypt for their murder and suppression of dissidents is not to be Islamophobic or anti-Arab. And calling out Israel for its sabotage of the two-state solution and creation of a de facto apartheid state is not to be anti-Semitic.
https://lithub.com/the-former-head-of-human-rights-watch-on-the-challenges-of-reporting-on-the-abuses-of-israels-government/
No Other Land –>> now showing @- Tara Theater on Cheshire Bridge Rd. Atlanta.
“Once you witness Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta, it becomes impossible to justify it, and that’s why the mayor is so afraid of our film,” Abraham stated in a social media post.
Al Mayadeen
The mayor is not censoring the film, the cinema is free to show that film 24 hours a day if they choose. However, the cinema is not entitled to operate on city property with city grants and funding.