American actor and producer Mark Ruffalo has pushed back against Paramount Skydance after the media company claimed that he used “antisemitic tropes” in criticizing the studio’s proposed $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
The argument erupted after 58-year-old Ruffalo criticized Oracle technology company, whose co-founder Larry Ellison controls Paramount with his son, for complicity in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Ruffalo called the antisemitism charge “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
“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,” Ruffalo wrote in a post published on the social media platform X on Saturday.
The dispute traces to a social media post from the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that the Oscar-nominated actor had promoted.
The post featured comments from Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra Catz describing the company’s assistance to Israel following the large-scale Operation al-Aqsa Flood carried out by Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Catz stated that Oracle undertook efforts, which it could not fully elaborate on, to support the Israeli military, alluding to the sophisticated technology it had made accessible for that purpose.
BDS captioned the clip by slamming Oracle for being “complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity — including apartheid and genocide against Palestinians.”
Ruffalo reshared the post to his Instagram Story on Friday, taking aim at Ellison family.
“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you,” Ruffalo wrote.
He added, “Look how [Catz] revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
In his response on Saturday, Ruffalo reiterated that his criticism comes from his own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people.
“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,” he wrote on X.
Ongoing Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which came into effect in October 2025, have killed 1,286 Palestinians and injured 4,257 others as of Sunday, according to the Health Ministry in the war-ravaged coastal territory.
The ministry also said the overall toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023 had risen to 73,420 killed and 174,369 injured.
