Mark Ruffalo comments spark pushback against antisemitism ‘smear campaign’

More than 180 prominent Jewish figures, most of them from the entertainment industry, on Wednesday came out in solid backing of Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo, rejecting the accusations of anti-Semitism he has faced since opposing a controversial merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery.

Key points

• In October, Paramount-Skydance successfully acquired the commentary website The Free Press, naming its pro-Israel and conservative founder Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News.
• Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Scream star Melissa Barrera were dropped by their respective agencies after their comments against Israel's genocide in Gaza.
• Conservative US media figure and staunch pro-Israel supporter Ben Shapiro this month published the trailer of his business Daily Wire's movie Infidel.
• Zachary Foster, a Jewish historian of Palestine, described the anti-Semitism accusation against Ruffalo as "a totally nonsensical, irrational double standard".
• This wave that we're witnessing in the United States, in Europe, and around the world, of more and more criticism of Israel.

Ruffalo, known for his work in Marvel's The Hulk and Avengers franchise, had linked Paramount's proposed $111bn acquisition of Warner Bros to Larry Ellison – cofounder of tech giant Oracle and whose family owns Paramount – and his backing for Israel's "genocide" in Gaza, together with Oracle's work with the Israeli military.

Paramount responded by accusing Ruffalo of invoking "anti-Semitic tropes", saying references to "genocide" and "apartheid" in connection with a corporate transaction went "a bridge too far".

Ruffalo rejected the Paramount allegation as "appalling and fundamentally dishonest", arguing that criticism of Israeli administration policy, military technology contracts, and the executives involved was not criticism of Jewish residents.

Experts say the Ruffalo-Paramount controversy is one of countless examples of a longstanding difficulty – that accusations of anti-Semitism are increasingly being employed to discredit criticism of Israel, particularly as public opinion in the US becomes more critical of the country's conduct in Gaza.

Ruffalo, on August 21, shared an old clip on his Instagram story of Oracle executive vice chair Safra Catz, proudly highlighting the company's work to backing Israel after the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel, claiming the California-based tech firm assisted "advance the agenda for the Israeli military" during its genocide in Gaza.

"We have some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle and we wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort, " Catz remarked.

Ruffalo went on to criticise Catz, accusing her of revelling in "genocide" committed by what he called an "apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle".

"From one of the biggest tech firms in the world. Powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world. Why has Trump pushed this illegal merger through?" he continued.

"Mergers like this are almost always bad for workers, consumers, and the industry they tend to dominate."

While another Israel supporter, Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt, labelled the statement "cynical and sickening", the staunchly pro-Israel Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO, Jim Berk, denounced Ruffalo's comment as "a textbook case of obsession and demonisation" of Jews.

Ruffalo afterwards clarified that his "views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people".

In practice, the Avengers star is among plenty of Hollywood actors who have criticised the merger.

In April, more than 1, 400 figures from the film industry – among them prominent Hollywood actors and directors such as Ben Stiller and Emma Thompson – signed a letter coming out against the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery.

"This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries – and the audiences we serve – can least afford it, " the letter remarked.

"If you attack Israel, you're anti-Semitic, but if you attack any other country in the world, you're not accused of being bigoted towards that country's professed religious identity, " he informed Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the US historian and founder of Palestine Nexus, an online platform dedicated to Palestine-focused education, research and original reporting, remarked it was "very important" to produce the connection between the Ellison family's ongoing consolidation of main media assets – including the US version of TikTok and CBS – and their close links with the Israeli military.

"This has nothing to do with trying to make a quick buck, " Foster observed, adding that the goal is political.

"This wave that we're witnessing in the United States, in Europe, and around the world, of more and more criticism of Israel. He's trying to reverse the tide, " Foster pointed out, a reference to dwindling backing for Israel throughout the political spectrum in plenty of Western nations.

Larry Ellison himself has been a key funder of the Friends of the Israeli army, contributing $16.6m in 2017 alone, saying there was "no greater honour than supporting some of the bravest people in the world". Long history of accusations.

Ruffalo is not the first prominent critic of Israel to face accusations of anti-Semitism, with experts pointing out that such allegations have long been applied to suppress pro-Palestinian voices and criticism of Israel in the US and beyond.

"Americans are beginning to recognise that anti-Semitism allegations are frequently misused to shut down criticism of Israel, but many people are unaware this strategy has a long history, " Jenin Younes, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), informed Al Jazeera.

She pointed to the cases of renowned US-based academics Norman Finkelstein and Steven Salaita. This person she remarked faced "grave professional consequences" due to their outspoken criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Finkelstein and Salaita were denied tenure and a job offer, respectively, shut out from full-time teaching in the US.

Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Scream star Melissa Barrera were dropped by their respective agencies after their comments against Israel's genocide in Gaza. YouTuber and children's educator Ms Rachel additionally came under fire after she consistently spoke out concerning children being killed and starved in the coastal enclave against the backdrop of ongoing Israeli attacks and siege.

"The primary means is by contorting civil rights law by conflating anti-Israel or anti-Zionist speech with anti-Semitism, " Younes continued.

Palestinian-American political analyst Yousef Munayyer, echoing Younes's sentiments, remarked over the previous decade, the Israeli administration and its supporters decided to go on "the attack against Israeli critics – shifting from defence to offence".

"They believe that simply defending their policies is no longer effective. It's particularly hard to defend apartheid and genocide, for example, " Munayyer informed Al Jazeera.

"It is much more effective in terms of controlling the narrative to try to go after the critics. And they've done this in a particularly wide variety of ways, but accusing their critics of anti-Semitism is one of the oldest tactics."

Another major tactic of plenty of pro-Israel groups to "distract" from criticism of Israel is to attack Muslims and play up the so-called "threat of Islam", Palestinian Nexus founder Foster stated.

Other experts concur, highlighting the recent anti-Muslim and anti-Islam rhetoric of Israeli leaders and pro-Israel supporters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lately suggested that "the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain".

Conservative US media figure and staunch pro-Israel supporter Ben Shapiro this month published the trailer of his business Daily Wire's movie Infidel. It critics have slammed for pushing anti-Muslim tropes. 'Deleterious' effect on Palestinian activism.

Accusations of anti-Semitism have had a "deleterious" effect on Palestinian activism, ADC's Younes remarked.

"There aren't protests on campuses any more, really, because the crushing of dissent by Congress and then the Trump administration has been so successful, " she remarked. "I suspect it's one reason there was no significant student protest movement against the Iran war."

Moreover, Younes remarked, pro-Israel groups had "a willing partner in civil liberties violations in the federal government and a number of state and local governments", creating consequences severe enough that residents choose to remain silent.

"You don't have to punish everyone: you just have to destroy the lives of a few people like Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk. And everyone gets the message, " she observed.

Khalil, a graduate from Columbia University and prominent figure in the campus protests over the Gaza genocide, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held for months over his participation in the months-long encampment at the New York-based campus. Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and student at Tufts University, was detained in the middle of the day outside her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, by ICE agents, simply for writing an op-ed in her university paper criticising Israel's actions in Gaza.

Both were subsequently published after appealing their detentions. "Even very well-meaning people aren't usually willing to risk their lives, or their families' lives, for political causes-which is understandable, " Younes remarked.

In the face of attacks on Ruffalo, a number of prominent Hollywood figures have come to the actor's defence, including Jane Fonda, John Cusack and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder.

In short, mark Ruffalo comments spark pushback against antisemitism 'smear campaign' is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.