Palestinian star of Oscars contender The Voice of Hind Rajab' to miss ceremony due to travel ban
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“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a heartbreaking retelling of the efforts to save a 6-year-old Palestinian girl amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza, will be honored at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday — without one of its star players.Actor Motaz Malhees, who stars in the film as Red Crescent dispatcher Omar, confirmed Thursday that he will be absent from the festivities because of President Trump’s travel ban against Palestinians.
“I had the honor of playing one of the lead roles in a story the world needed to hear,” Malhees said on Instagram, “but I will not be there.”“I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship,” he added.Awards Kaouther Ben Hania scuttled plans for another project to make her Oscar-nominated international feature about the human toll of Israel’s war in Gaza.Trump announced his widened travel ban in December, noting his decision to “fully restrict and limit the entry of individuals using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority,” along with people from countries including South Sudan and Syria.
The president issued the order months after he presented his 20-point peace plan for the Gaza strip — efforts that some Palestinians feel have been now brushed aside amid U.S.and Israeli attacks against Iran.Malhees said in his post that the restriction “hurts” but offered his followers and supporters a kernel of truth: “You can block a passport.
You cannot block a voice.”“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, is nominated in the international feature category.The film is set in a Red Crescent call center in Ramallah and centers the 70-minute phone recording of Hind’s pleas for help as she waits with her family in a trapped car for emergency responders.
She and two medics dispatched to her location were killed in February 2024 in Isra...