Paramount: “Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far.”
By Shula Rosen
Paramount said actor Mark Ruffalo was invoking antisemitic tropes after he criticized its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery by linking the deal’s backers to Oracle’s Israeli military technology contracts and using stereotypes of Jewish control, a statement Ruffalo strongly rejected.
Ruffalo criticized the merger in an Instagram post to his 20.5 million followers, focusing on Oracle and David and Larry Ellison, the company’s co-founder.
His post included a video of former Oracle chief Safra Catz discussing the company’s technology and Israel’s war effort in Gaza at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in 2024.
The Marvel actor described the war as a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
Ruffalo also connected Oracle, the Ellisons and their media holdings, accusing the moguls of consolidating economic and corporate power.
They “are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance,” Ruffalo wrote.
Paramount responded publicly to the actor, taking the unusual step of issuing a lengthy statement rejecting his characterization of the corporate transaction and accusing him of crossing into antisemitism.
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” a Paramount spokesperson said.
“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.”
Ruffalo denied that his criticism was directed at Jewish people and said his comments concerned political conduct and military contracts.
He called Paramount’s accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” arguing that the allegation was being used to divert attention from the substance of his criticism.
The dispute centers on Paramount’s proposed $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger and the role of David and Larry Ellison in backing the transaction, as well as Ruffalo’s objections to Oracle’s military technology contracts and its support for Israel following the October 7 attack.
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