Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees said a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump is preventing him from attending Sunday’s Academy Awards, whose nominees include a film in which he has a leading role.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, has been nominated for best international feature film.
Malhees, who plays the role of a call center operator trying to help the girl, said he cannot attend the Academy Awards, known as the Oscars, because he has been banned from entering the United States.
“I am not allowed to enter the United States due to my Palestinian citizenship,” Malhees said on Instagram, adding that it “hurts” that she would not be attending the Oscars.
In a December proclamation restricting the entry of foreign nationals, Trump said that as president he had “decided to completely restrict and limit the entry of persons using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority.”
The proclamation restricting the entry of people from some countries cited security reasons and went into effect on January 1, according to the US State Department website.
The state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The film was prompted by an incident in which five members of Rajab’s family and two ambulance workers who went to save her were also killed by Israeli fire. Israel says the incident is under review.
Malhees says the film’s other Palestinian cast members have citizenship that allows them to travel to the United States, but he only holds a Palestinian passport.
Trump has also attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian voices from the United States. On Friday, an immigration judge ordered the release of Leqaa Kordia, who lost more than 170 family members in Gaza and has been detained for a year. Two previous orders have not resulted in his release.
