Jewish groups call for Hollywood boycott of Mark Ruffalo after antisemitic comments over Paramount-Warner Bros. merger

The Anti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center and Creative Community for Peace have joined Paramount in accusing Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic rhetoric after he connected the Ellison family's business interests to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

The controversy erupted Friday after Ruffalo shared a video of Paramount board member and former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing technology Oracle provided to Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. "Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle," Ruffalo wrote.

Ruffalo then connected Oracle's work to his opposition to Paramount's proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle and is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. "Larry Ellison will own most of ‘Para Bros,’" Ruffalo wrote. "Larry is a classic Oligarch. They are crushing workers and the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance."

Paramount responded by accusing Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic tropes. "We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. 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," the company said.

"This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone."

Ruffalo fired back Saturday, denying that his comments were motivated by hostility toward Jews. "The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest," Ruffalo wrote on X. "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."

Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a Hollywood-based pro-Israel nonprofit, responded by calling for the entertainment industry to stop platforming Ruffalo until he retracts his remarks and apologizes. "Mark Ruffalo’s rhetoric has increasingly crossed the line from criticism of Israel into extremist and antisemitic messaging," CCFP Executive Director Ari Ingel said.

Ingel said Ruffalo's argument "increasingly fuses hostility toward Israel and Zionism with Jewish-associated wealth, media ownership, oligarchic power and ominous warnings about concentrated control into a single narrative."

"Those echoes are impossible to ignore. Hollywood should not accept this kind of rhetoric from anyone. Mark Ruffalo should retract these remarks and apologize, and nobody in Hollywood should platform him until he does."

CCFP also pointed to Ruffalo's own previous acknowledgment that rhetoric accusing Israel of genocide could fuel antisemitism. In May 2021, during fighting between Israel and Hamas, Ruffalo publicly apologized for posts suggesting Israel was committing "genocide."

"I have reflected & wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide’,” the actor tweeted.

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“It’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful & is being used to justify antisemitism here & abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.”

Saturday evening, Simon Wiesenthal Center shared a statement from CEO Jim Berk saying, “Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes.”

“We commend (Paramount) for speaking clearly and refusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism. At a time when antisemitism is too often minimized, rationalized or repackaged in more socially acceptable language, this kind of moral clarity matters,” the statement continued.

“Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization. Paramount was right to call it out. More leaders and institutions should have the courage to call antisemitism what it is, regardless of who is spreading it.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted on social media, “The posts by Mark Ruffalo over the past 48 hours are cynical and sickening. Oppose the Paramount merger on the merits, find arguments grounded in facts and draw on what you know about the industry without engaging in antisemitic rhetoric. Introducing the Jewish state out of the blue when it’s entirely unrelated, making baseless claims about Israel, and then trying to avoid accountability by essentially claiming that ‘some of my best friends are Jewish’ is gaslighting 101.”

“Mark Ruffalo, your acting might be convincing on screen, but careless and hateful words like yours continue to put Jewish communities around the world at risk while antisemitic incidents are far too common,” he added.