Miami Beach Officials Vote to Enact Limits on Protests, Citing Anti-Israel Events

MIAMI (Miami Herald/TNS/Hamodia) — The Miami Beach City Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to support a resolution by Mayor Steven Meiner for the city to set “parameters for reasonable time, place and manner restrictions” for protests, pointing to several anti-Israel demonstrations in the city in recent months.

The resolution also calls for police to inform elected officials of all protests planned in the city within one hour of police learning a protest is expected to occur.

It comes two days after police directed pro-Palestinian protesters to a “free speech zone” near the Aspen Ideas climate conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center, saying they could not stand directly outside the event’s entrance for security reasons.

To support his proposal, Meiner cited pro-Palestinian protests at which he claimed “our laws have been violated.” During a public comment period, the mayor cut off one speaker who referred to the Israeli government’s war in Gaza against the Hamas terror group as a “genocide” and suggested that Meiner’s proposal was aimed at restricting free speech related to Israel.

“I‘m not going to sit here and allow you to make accusations about the Israeli government,” Meiner said, calling the statements “antisemitic.”

Several speakers said they believed the proposal was aimed at speech that city officials find objectionable.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said governments can limit the time, place and manner of speech if it serves a significant government interest and is “content neutral” and “narrowly tailored.”

Meiner’s item Wednesday calls for the city to create restrictions in order to “regulate and control future protests and demonstrations to the fullest extent permitted by law.” The resolution does not refer to pro-Palestinian protests or any specific types of demonstrations.

The details of the city’s regulations on protests have not yet been determined by city staff.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Meiner showed video clips of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting a speech late last month by lawyer Alan Dershowitz at a temple, where elderly people are seen crossing the street and walking through a group of protesters chanting and holding signs on a sidewalk.

“As mayor, I will not tolerate our residents being harassed and accosted and threatened for simply trying to pray,” Meiner said, comparing the images to “Nazi Germany.”

Commissioner David Suarez said he believed the video showed an insufficient police presence outside the synagogue protecting its members and suggested that Police Chief Wayne Jones’ handling of the incident was “grounds for firing.”

“If that was a KKK rally, it would have been different,” Suarez said.

He added that, as someone who is half Israeli and one of four Jewish elected officials in Miami Beach, including Meiner, he found it “concerning” that they were not notified of the protest.