Miami Beach Mayor Caves, Drops Plan To Shutter Indie Theater For Showing Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land’

deadline.com:

The mayor of Miami Beach has scuttled his proposal to evict an indie cinema for showing the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land.

Mayor Steven Meiner withdrew his plan during a lively meeting of the Miami Beach City Commission today. He had issued a draft resolution last week calling for his city to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, located at Old City Hall, a property owned by the city.

The Miami Herald reported that Meiner’s decision came after five of his colleagues said they would oppose the eviction proposal.

One commissioner supported it. The paper added that the mayor said during the meeting that he was withdrawing the resolution for an alternative proposal to encourage the theater to show films that “highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint.” The Herald also quoted Meiner as saying, “I legitimately viewed this as a public-safety threat.” The resolution also would have eliminated about $40,000 in grants provided by Miami Beach to the nonprofit that runs the arthouse.