Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner has come under fire from free speech advocates for attempting to keep the documentary “No Other Land” out of a city-owned theater.
The leader of a southern Florida city has come under fire from free speech advocates for attempting to keep the award-winning documentary “No Other Land” out of a city-owned theater, but Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner believes the film is potentially dangerous anti-Israel propaganda.
“When there’s propaganda, it often ends in violence and murder. So, we have to take that propaganda and one-sided hate very seriously”, Mayor Meiner told Fox News Digital.
Meiner has made international headlines, many of them negative, by objecting to “No Other Land” being shown at O Cinema, located inside Miami Beach’s Old City Hall. The mayor said he penned a letter to O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell expressing concern about the documentary being shown at a theater on government property that receives grant funding from Miami Beach. She initially agreed but backtracked and screened “No Other Land” anyway.
Miami Beach has the ability to terminate the contract for O Cinema to remain inside Old City Hall with 180 days of notice, and Meiner wants to give the theater the boot over the decision. Critics, such as the International Documentary Association, have condemned Meiner’s threat, suggesting it’s a clear violation of free speech, but the mayor sees it differently.
“If you’re going to show one film like this, ‘No Other Land’, that’s, you know, a one-sided propaganda piece. You know, show another film that shows both sides of the issue”, Meiner said.
“I watched the film. I’m a staunch believer in free speech. But we also, as a country, I think we’ve done a really good… since the civil rights movement, pointing out hate and propaganda where it exists”, Meiner continued. “And this is a perfect example of this movie being a one-sided propaganda hit piece that leaves out some incredibly important facts that change the whole context of the movie.”
Meiner, who is an Orthodox Jew, feels “No Other Land” is “disturbing in many respects”, and is filled with antisemitic rhetoric. The film, which won the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and was made by two Israelis and two Palestinians, advertises that it “shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers.
