Summary of this article
The Voice of Hind Rajab actor Motaz Malhees is not allowed to attend the Oscars 2026 due to the travel ban on Palestine.
He wrote, “You can block a passport. You cannot block a voice.”
The Voice of Hind Rajab has been nominated in the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab has been nominated in the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards, which is on Sunday (March 15). It will compete with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.
Motaz Malhees, the Palestinian actor who played a pivotal role in The Voice of Hind Rajab, has been barred from entering the United States due to the travel ban imposed by the Trump administration.
Palestinian actor barred from Oscars
Taking to his Instagram handle, Malhees wrote that he is unable to attend the Oscars due to President Donald Trump's travel ban on Palestinian citizens.
Motaz Malhees on US entry ban
“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,” Malhees wrote. “I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship.”
“It hurts,” he said and added, “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 concluded his note.
Motaz Malhees plays a call center operator trying to help a 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, trapped in a car in Gaza.
About Palestinian citizens' US travel restrictions
In December, Trump imposed a travel ban on six countries – Palestine, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. The decision came weeks after the President declared a “permanent pause” on migration.
Though Malhees is not allowed to attend the Oscars, Ben Hania, who is Tunisian, might attend.
Rajab’s mother, Wissam Hamada, also cannot enter the US.
