Mark Ruffalo at the AFI Awards in January. Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for AFI Mark Ruffalo is rejecting Paramount‘s claim that his recent comments highlighting the role Larry Ellison’s Oracle played in the Israel-Gaza war were “antisemitic.”
“The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” Ruffalo wrote on X Saturday morning. “Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.”
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Ruffalo, a staunch opponent to Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros., had recently shared on social media a clip from 2024 of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking about “profoundly scary technologies” Oracle had built as Catz was speaking about Oracle’s tech in relation to the Israel-Gaza war. Ruffalo went on to call the war a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
He added in his Instagram story that these “profoundly scary technologies” “will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world” and criticized the planned Paramount-WB merger, saying moguls “are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.”
Paramount issued a lengthy reply in which the company called for the temperature of the debate to be lowered and called Ruffalo’s remarks “antisemitic.”
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” the Paramount rep stated. “Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
Paramount added, “We understand people feel strongly about this merger and are hopeful and expect that it will be judged based on the legal merits, not underlying bias. We’re asking for the same good faith we’re extending: less rhetoric, more understanding. Paramount’s future is being written for everyone who wants to make and watch great stories.”
In his response Saturday, Ruffalo sought to make a distinction between his objections to the Israeli military and his views about the Jewish people.
He also argued that the merger “has real consequences for real people and for the entire country” and deserved serious scrutiny, particularly given what the deal would mean for control of CNN, HBO and other Warner Bros. assets.
“Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary,” Ruffalo wrote. “The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.”
In his Instagram story about Oracle’s “profoundly scary technologies,” Ruffalo mentioned the ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 attorneys general, which Paramount said last week is the only thing stopping the deal from being done, now that the merger has been cleared by all global regulators. Still a number of officials, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and L.A. mayor Karen Bass, have expressed support for settlement talks, which Newsom said Friday were happening “in real time.”
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