‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ actor Motaz Malhees to miss Oscars 2026 due to Trump’s Palestine travel ban
The Hindu
Actor Motaz Malhees will miss the 2026 Oscars due to Trump's travel ban on Palestinians despite his film's nomination.
Actor Motaz Malhees has said that the travel ban imposed on Palestinians by Donald Trump’s administration is preventing him from attending this weekend’s Academy Awards. Notably, Malhees’s acclaimed docudrama, The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, has been nominated for Best International Feature at the Oscars.
On Thursday, Malhees posted on Instagram, “Three days left to the Oscars. Our film ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ is nominated for an Academy Award. I had the honor of playing one of the lead roles in a story the world needed to hear. But I will not be there. I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship.”
“It hurts. But here is the truth: You can block a passport. You cannot block a voice. I am Palestinian, and I stand with pride and dignity. My spirit will be with the ‘Voice of Hind Rajab’ that night. Good luck to all of you. Our story is bigger than any barrier, and it will be heard,” he added.
A post shared by Motaz Malhees معتز ملحّيس (@motazmalhees)
The Voice of Hind Rajab recounts the final hours of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed in Gaza in January 2024. While fleeing Gaza City with relatives, her family’s car was shelled. The child survived the initial attack and spent hours trapped among the dead, speaking on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society as paramedics tried to reach her. “Please come to me, please come. I’m scared,” she is heard saying in the real recordings incorporated into the film. When rescuers finally arrived, both Rajab and the medics were found dead.
Investigations by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, Forensic Architecture and Earshot later determined that an Israeli tank, positioned just meters away, had fired into the vehicle. A July 2024 UN report attributed the attack directly to Israeli forces. The Israeli military has denied responsibility, saying the incident remains under review.
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