Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is defending Paramount after the studio called Mark Ruffalo’s anti-merger comments “antisemitic.”
“Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes,” Berk wrote. “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.”
“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,” his statement concluded.
Earlier this week, the Oscar-nominated actor, who has been an outspoken opponent of Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros., highlighted Larry Ellison’s (Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father) Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military amid the Israel-Gaza war. Ruffalo resurfaced a clip from 2024 of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking about “profoundly scary technologies” the tech company had built in relation to Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The actor also described the war as a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
In response, Paramount clapped back, calling the Marvel star’s remarks “antisemitic.” The studio’s spokesperson’s statement read in part, “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. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
Creative Community for Peace, a Hollywood-based pro-Israel advocacy organization, has also called for Hollywood to boycott Ruffalo until the actor “retract[s] these remarks and apologize[s],” the group’s executive director, Ari Ingel, wrote in a statement.
“Mark Ruffalo’s rhetoric has increasingly crossed the line from criticism of Israel into extremist and antisemitic messaging,” Ingel also wrote, adding, “Point blank, he has been warned before about the consequences of this rhetoric, yet continues contributing to the toxic antisemitic atmosphere we are witnessing today. That makes him culpable. His 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.”
On Saturday, Ruffalo took to X to dismiss Paramount’s claims that his comments were “antisemitic” as well as offer a distinction between his criticism of the Israeli military and his views about Jewish people. He wrote in part, “The accusation that I am antisemitic is 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. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
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