Miami Beach mayor threatens cinema closure over screening of Oscar-winning film ‘No Other Land’

Despite its success, “No Other Land” has struggled to secure US distribution, with the filmmakers self-releasing the film through mTuckman Media. (Antipode Films/File)
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Updated 14 March 2025
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Miami Beach mayor threatens cinema closure over screening of Oscar-winning film ‘No Other Land’

  • Documentary is propaganda, attack on Jews, says Steven Meiner
  • Cinema’s CEO Vivian Marthell stands by decision to screen film

LONDON: The mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, has threatened to shutter a cinema that screened “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning film that tells the story of Palestinian displacement in the West Bank.

Steven Meiner has proposed terminating O Cinema’s lease and withdrawing $40,000 in promised grant funding, following a series of requests to cancel the documentary screening.

Meiner’s proposal to terminate the cinema’s lease is scheduled for a city commission vote next Wednesday.

Critics of the film claim it unfairly criticizes Israeli and German officials and contains antisemitic content.

“The City of Miami Beach has one of the highest concentrations of Jewish residents in the United States,” Meiner said in a newsletter sent to residents on Tuesday.

He described the documentary as “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.”

Meiner also claimed that O Cinema’s CEO, Vivian Marthell, initially agreed to cancel the screening but later reversed her decision and added additional dates after the film sold out.

Marthell said she stood by her decision.

“We understand the power of cinema to tell stories that matter, and we recognize that some stories — especially those rooted in real-world conflicts — can evoke strong feelings and passionate reactions. As they should.

“Our decision to screen ‘No Other Land’ is not a declaration of political alignment. It is, however, a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard.”

The production, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature this month, was filmed between 2019 and 2023 by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers.

It follows the destruction of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank by Israeli military forces and chronicles the unlikely friendship between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed the film.

Abraham said in a statement: “When the mayor uses the word antisemitism to silence Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it out of meaning.

“I find that to be very dangerous.”

While the film has received critical acclaim, it has also sparked controversy, highlighting ongoing tensions over free speech and Palestinian activism both in the US and internationally.

“Freedom of expression is an important value, but defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art,” Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar said in a social media post after the Oscars.

Despite its success, “No Other Land” has struggled to secure US distribution, with the filmmakers self-releasing the film through mTuckman Media.

The directors — particularly Abraham and Adra — have blamed political backlash fears as the reason for US distributors’ reluctance to acquire the rights.

The controversy comes amid heightened tensions over Palestinian activism in the US.

Earlier this week, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student activist and green-card holder who led the Palestinian solidarity movement during campus protests last year, was detained by immigration authorities.

President Donald Trump has alleged, without evidence, that Khalil has links to “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity.”

The incident has sparked an international outcry, with rights groups and media condemning Khalil’s detention as “a dangerous moment” and “a flagrant assault on free speech” that violates the First Amendment.

 


Iraq imposes new fees on social media influencers in latest crackdown on digital content

Updated 27 March 2025
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Iraq imposes new fees on social media influencers in latest crackdown on digital content

  • Content creators now required to register annually and pay fees of up to $760 based on follower counts
  • Authorities say regulations will create a more responsible digital media culture; critics argue framework is too vague

LONDON: The Communications and Media Commission in Iraq has introduced new rules requiring digital content creators, including social media influencers, to register annually and pay fees based on their follower counts.

“The regulation aims to establish a framework that sets clear standards and procedures for digital content and advertising on social media platforms,” Haider Najm Al-Alaq, a spokesperson for the commission, told the Iraqi News Agency.

The primary goal is to “ensure transparency, credibility and public protection from unprofessional promotional content,” he added.

The new rules apply to bloggers, influencers and public figures with significant online followings. The aim is to align digital content with Iraqi laws, curb “misleading or unethical advertisements,” and offer legal protections for registered influencers, the commission said. They will also help to safeguard vulnerable groups, it added, including women, children and people with special needs.

The annual registration fees range from 250,000 to 1 million Iraqi dinars ($190 to $760), with influencers who have more than 5 million followers paying the highest amount. The commission said the regulations will be enforced through a monitoring system.

Al-Alaq said influencers will be required to adhere to specific standards for content, including “respect for national sovereignty,” avoidance of material that “damages Iraq’s position or foreign relations,” and support for security institutions in their counterterrorism efforts. They must also refrain from posting material that could incite violence or sectarianism, and provide a right of response for individuals affected by their content.

However, Iraqi journalism rights groups, content creators and media experts criticized the new regulations. They described the framework as vague, and raised concerns about its legal basis and potential for misuse. They also warned that the law will do little to regulate content quality and instead serve simply as a tool for generating revenue.

“This decision is sudden, illogical and baffling,” Iraqi journalist and blogger Omar Al-Janabi wrote in a message posted on social media platform X.

“It does not distinguish between commercial advertising and political commentary, nor between platforms. A journalist posting news on X is treated the same as a YouTube influencer selling skin cream.”

The new regulations follow a broader crackdown on what Iraqi authorities describe as “indecent content,” an effort that has intensified in the past year.

On Aug. 22, authorities arrested Raghad Mohammed Ghali Jabr Al-Janabi, a 22-year-old TikToker known online as “Natalie,” in Baghdad for allegedly promoting indecent material. Several other influencers, including Aned Khaled (nickname “Hassahs”), Ruqayya Rahim and Aya Al-Shammari were detained the same month under Article 403 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which criminalizes the production or distribution of content deemed to violate public decency. Those convicted under the law face fines and up to two years in prison.

The crackdown comes amid growing concern about the safety of social media personalities in Iraq. In April 2024, popular influencer Om Fahad was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad. The killing, the third in a string of violent attacks targeting online celebrities, sparked a nationwide debate about content regulation and online safety.


Palestinian filmmaker says Israeli settlers assaulted him for winning Oscar

Updated 27 March 2025
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Palestinian filmmaker says Israeli settlers assaulted him for winning Oscar

  • Hamdan Ballal said he had been attacked by settlers while soldiers pointed their weapons at him
  • No Other Land’s co-director called the “brutality” life-threatening

SUSYA, Palestinian Territories: Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal said Wednesday that he was attacked by Israeli settlers for winning the prestigious award, calling the “brutality” life-threatening.
Israeli police released Ballal on Tuesday after detaining him the day before for allegedly “hurling rocks” following what activists described as an attack by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Ballal co-directed “No Other Land,” which won Best Documentary at this year’s Academy Awards.
The film chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta — an area Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.
Ballal said he had been attacked by settlers while soldiers pointed their weapons at him.
“I felt that these were the last moments of my life, that I would lose it due to the severity of the beating,” he told AFP in a video interview.
“My head was trapped between the settler’s foot, the door and the wall, as if it were a football.”
The “brutality” of the attack, he said, “made me feel it was because I won the Oscar.”
During his detention at an Israeli military center, Ballal noticed soldiers mentioning his name alongside the word “Oscar” during shift changes.
“While I couldn’t understand everything they said, I clearly recognized my name and the word ‘Oscar’, as those words don’t change in Hebrew,” he said.
According to the Israeli military, three Palestinians were apprehended on Monday for “hurling rocks” during a confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians in the southern West Bank village of Susya.
The village is located near Masafer Yatta, a grouping of hamlets south of Hebron city where “No Other Land” is set.


Yuval Abraham, who co-directed the documentary, criticized the US Academy for its silence over the issue.
“Sadly, the US Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Abraham said on X.
“While Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land... he was also targeted for being Palestinian — like countless others every day who are disregarded.”
“This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honored, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most,” Abraham added.
Israel’s military said in a statement that “claims that the detainees were beaten during the night at an IDF detention facility were found to be entirely baseless.”
“IDF (military) forces facilitated medical treatment for the detainees... and throughout the night, the detainees remained in a military detention facility while handcuffed in accordance with operational protocol,” it said, adding they were released on bail after questioning.
Activists from the anti-occupation group Center for Jewish Nonviolence said they witnessed the violence in Susya.
Foreign activists regularly stay in Masafer Yatta’s communities to accompany Palestinians as they tend to their crops or shepherd their sheep, and document instances of settler violence.
Rights groups have said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza — a separate Palestinian territory — there has been a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.


Turkish court frees AFP journalist held for covering protests: lawyer

Updated 27 March 2025
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Turkish court frees AFP journalist held for covering protests: lawyer

  • AFP chief executive and chairman Fabrice Fries had slammed imprisonment as “unacceptable.”

Istanbul: A Turkish court on Thursday freed AFP photographer Yasin Akgul who was detained for covering mass protests roiling the country, his lawyer said.
Akgul, 35, was one of seven Turkish journalists arrested this week after days of covering mass protests that erupted on March 19 when Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival — was arrested.
Akgul and his colleagues were arrested at their homes before dawn and charged with “taking part in illegal rallies and marches and failing to disperse despite warnings,” court documents showed.
Turkiye ranks 158 out of 180 countries listed in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index compiled by RSF.
AFP chief executive and chairman Fabrice Fries had slammed imprisonment as “unacceptable.”
Akgul, he stressed, was “not part of the protest” but only covering it as a journalist, and should be swiftly released.


BBC veteran Jeremy Bowen accuses Israel of intentionally blocking journalists from Gaza

Updated 27 March 2025
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BBC veteran Jeremy Bowen accuses Israel of intentionally blocking journalists from Gaza

  • Lack of access for international media is part of Israel’s strategy to ‘obfuscate what’s going on,’ he says, ‘because they don’t want us to see it’
  • Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, received the Fellowship Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism from the UK’s Society of Editors on Tuesday

DUBAI: The BBC’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, has accused Israel of deliberately preventing journalists from entering Gaza in an attempt to “obfuscate what’s going on, and to inject this notion of doubt into information that comes out.”

Bowen was awarded the Fellowship Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism at a Society of Editors conference in the UK on Tuesday.

During his acceptance speech, he said: “Why don’t they let us into Gaza? Because they don’t want us to see it. I think it’s really as simple as that.

“Israel took a bit of flak for that to start with but none now, certainly not with (US President Donald) Trump So, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

He praised Palestinian journalists for the “fantastic work” they are doing but said that he and other international journalists also want to report from Gaza. He again alleged that the reason Israeli authorities will not allow the international media into Gaza is because “there’s stuff that they don’t want us to see.” This contrasts sharply with the situation at the start of the conflict, Bowen added.

“Beginning after those Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, they (the Israelis) took us into the border communities,” he said. “I was in Kfar Aza when there was still fighting going on inside it. They had only just started taking out the bodies of the dead Israelis. Why did they let us in there? Because they wanted us to see it.”

In the past 18 months, Bowen said he had been permitted to spend only half a day with the Israeli army inside Gaza. He described the conflict as the “bloodiest war” since “the foundation of the Israeli state of 1948.”

He said that “if the place could open up, people could go through, look at the records, count the graves, exhume the skeletons from under the rubble and then they’d get a better idea. But when the doors shut, these things become very, very difficult.”

It was not the first time Bowen has voiced concerns about the reporting restrictions. During a report from Tel Aviv in Jan. 2025, he said: “One reason I’m standing here and not in Gaza is because the Israelis don’t let international journalists like myself in there to report freely.”

Last year, he was among 55 international journalists who signed an open letter urging Israel and Egypt to provide “free and unfettered access to Gaza for all foreign media.”

They wrote: “We call on the government of Israel to openly state its permission for international journalists to operate in Gaza, and for the Egyptian authorities to allow international journalists access to the Rafah Crossing.

“It’s vital that local journalists’ safety is respected and that their efforts are bolstered by the journalism of members of the international media. The need for comprehensive, on-the-ground reporting of the conflict is imperative.”


Atlantic releases entire Signal chat showing Hegseth’s detailed attack plans against Houthis

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump and US Ambassadors.
Updated 27 March 2025
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Atlantic releases entire Signal chat showing Hegseth’s detailed attack plans against Houthis

  • Magazine said it was now publishing details after the Trump administration confirmed it was genuine and denied any classified information had been included

WASHINGTON: The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday published what it said was the entire text of a chat group mistakenly shared with a journalist by top US national security officials laying out plans of an imminent attack on Yemen.
The stunning details, including the times of strikes and types of planes being used, were all laid out in screenshots of the chat, which the officials had conducted on a commercial Signal messaging app, rather than a secure government platform.
The magazine, which initially only published the broad outlines of the chat, said it was now publishing the details after the Trump administration confirmed it was genuine and repeatedly denied that any classified information had been included.
The scandal has rocked President Donald Trump’s administration, which for now is reacting defiantly — attacking The Atlantic and denying any wrongdoing.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes had said Monday the chain cited by The Atlantic appeared to be “authentic.”
However, Vice President JD Vance, who was on the Signal chat, said The Atlantic had “oversold” the story, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the entire story was another hoax.”
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz likewise insisted on X that the Signal chain revealed “no locations” and “NO WAR PLANS.”
However, the depth of detail in the now published chat will fuel a furious outcry from Democrats in Congress who are accusing the Trump officials of incompetence and putting US military operations in peril.
The House of Representatives was set to discuss the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.
The story first broke Monday when Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about imminent strikes against the Houthi rebels on March 15.
For reasons unknown, Goldberg’s phone number had been added to the group, also including Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, among others.
Goldberg also revealed disparaging comments by the top US officials about European allies during their chat.
The Atlantic initially did not publish the precise details of the chat, saying it wanted to avoid revealing classified material and information that could endanger American troops.
But on Tuesday, Ratcliff and other officials involved in the chat played down the scandal, testifying before Congress that nothing critical had been shared or laws broken — and that nothing discussed was classified.
Trump himself brushed the breach off as a “glitch” and said there was “no classified information” involved.
The Atlantic said on Wednesday that it therefore asked the government whether in that case there would be any problem in publishing the rest of the material. It got no firm indications to the contrary.
The Atlantic said its full publication Wednesday included everything in the Signal chain other than one CIA name that the agency had asked not to be revealed.
The text discussion includes Hegseth laying out the weather conditions, times of attacks and types of aircraft being used.
The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off and two hours before the first target, described as “Target Terrorist,” was expected to be bombed.
The details are shockingly precise for the kind of operation that the public usually only learns about later — and in vaguer terms.
“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package),” Hegseth writes at one stage.
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”
A short time later, Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing “Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID” and “amazing job.”
The Houthis, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US.
The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the group in response to constant Houthi attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.