Paramount accuses Mark Ruffalo of antisemitism after actor criticises studio’s Israel links

Paramount has publicly accused actor Mark Ruffalo of invoking "antisemitic tropes" after he criticised the studio's financial links to Israel via Oracle, the tech firm backing Paramount Skydance's proposed $110 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery. Ruffalo, a longstanding pro-Palestinian advocate who pledged last October not to work with Israeli film institutions during the Gaza war, has also been an outspoken opponent of the merger itself, arguing it would concentrate excessive power in a small number of hands.

The row escalated after footage surfaced of Oracle executive and Paramount Skydance board member Safra Catz discussing "profoundly scary technologies" the company had supplied to Israel. Ruffalo responded on Instagram, accusing Oracle owner Larry Ellison of being an "oligarch" and describing what he called a "genocide" built on an "apartheid system of oppression". In a statement to The Wrap on 21 August, Paramount said such language was "a bridge too far" that "cheapens the very real suffering those words are meant to describe", while insisting it does not tolerate prejudice of any kind. Ruffalo has yet to respond, though he previously wrote in The New York Times that many actors were too afraid to publicly oppose the merger.