The best way to deal with controversial ‘No Other Land’ film is dialogue, not censorship | Opinion

The controversy over the screening of “No Other Land” at Miami Beach’s O Cinema and the mayor’s declared intent to revoke the theater’s funding and evict it from a city-owned space has ballooned into a national and international debate about freedom of speech and artistic expression.

Mayor Steven Meiner labeled the Oscar-winning documentary, made by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, antisemitic. He noted that the city has “one of the largest concentrations of Jewish residents in the U.S.” He called for the theater to stop showing the film, which he called “a false, one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people.”

After a week of intense backlash, Meiner on Wednesday withdrew his proposal during a Miami Beach commssion meeting. It was the right thing to do. Five of the seven commissioners said they opposed the resolution, and the majority of attendees at the meeting were against it as well. But the real winner was free speech.

Meiner exercised his constitutional right of free speech when he called the documentary anti-Jewish, and it’s important that he was able to do so. That’s the First Amendment at work. But he was also trying to use the power of government to stop the theater from showing the film and punish the theater owners because he disagrees with their speech. That’s censorship.

The mayor’s initial resolution said the city should find a new tenant “that more accurately reflects the city’s values.” O Cinema, it should be noted, has been the host of the Jewish Film Festival for years. Meiner also had asked the city to strip the theater of about $40,000 in city grant funding.

The pushback since the mayor’s proposal last week has been far-reaching — most recently, a letter from more than 600 members of the “international filmmaking community” called the mayor’s effort “an attack on freedom of expression.” Among the signers: Miami-born “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins and Laura Poitras, who directed the 2015 Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour.”

“No Other Land” has generated widespread criticism in Israel and from Jewish groups, and has secured only limited screenings in the United States. It chronicles the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank.

We understand these are difficult and volatile times. But we cannot abandon the right of free speech, even when we disagree with it, or we risk becoming an intolerant place, a place that only welcomes those with a certain viewpoint. For South Floridians, many of whom left repressive political regimes to come to this country, the dangers of intolerance are well known.

We also know the horrors of antisemitism are terribly real. And it is on the rise, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It has no place in our community and must be denounced at every turn, along with hate speech of any kind.

Free speech, of course, has its limits — you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater — but it’s vital to a democracy to allow dissenting viewpoints, even when they offend us deeply.

As Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said in an email to her constituents — while noting that the city “has always stood with Israel” — the answer to what Meiner described as propaganda or offensive speech shouldn’t be shutting it down, or censoring what is said. It should be exposing any misinformation to bright sunlight, to truth, to open discussion.

In the end, Meiner’s move has had the opposite effect of what he was trying to accomplish: In trying to stop the screening of the movie, he has made more people interested in watching it. Local showings of the documentary have been sold out. That’s a common side effect of censorship — tell people they shouldn’t read, watch or listen to something and they will make a point of doing just that.

In recent years, Florida has become a place where banning has become more commonplace. We remove books in school libraries like never before. Our governor punishes Disney for speaking up against the so-called “Don’t say gay” law. But silencing voices isn’t the answer.

Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt told Variety in an article about the controversy that “censorship is never the right answer to challenging issues.” She was right. In Miami Beach, this time, freedom of expression and open dialogue prevailed.

Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated.

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This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM.