Motaz Malhees poses for photographers upon arrival at the 79th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
| Photo Credit: Alberto Pezzali
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.
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.
Kaouther Ben Hania holds a picture of Hind Rajab on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening “The Voice of Hind Rajab” in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, September 3, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
YARA NARDI
The Voice of Hind Rajab had made history at the Venice Film Festival by receiving a record 23-minute standing ovation — the longest ever recorded at the festival.
In the film, Malhees plays a call centre operator desperately trying to help a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, as she’s trapped in a car under fire in Gaza.
Nesbat Serhan, Motaz Malhees, Saja Kilani and Clara Khoury in a scene from the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab”.
It is to be noted that in December, US President Trump’s administration banned those with Palestinian Authority passports from entering the US, along with those from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. The proclamation went into effect on January 1.
Meanwhile, other Palestinian members of The Voice of Hind Rajab will be able to attend the ceremony as they all have citizenships that allow travelling to the US. The film’s director, Ben Hania, who is Tunisian, will be able to attend the event.
Films that expose Israel’s inhumane and heinous killings of millions of Palestinians have faced many hurdles in the past as well. The team behind last year’s Best Documentary-winner No Other Land faced unspeakable tribulations at the hands of Israeli forces. In March, co-director Hamdan Ballal was forcibly removed from an ambulance by Israeli forces and detained following a settler attack.
In July, activist and collaborator Odeh Hathalin was killed after being shot by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank. Hathalin had been actively involved in the international advocacy circuit and was deported from the United States after being detained at San Francisco International Airport during a planned interfaith speaking tour.
Published – March 15, 2026 01:43 pm IST
