Mark Ruffalo has fired back at Paramount Skydance after the media company accused him of invoking \u201cantisemitic tropes\u201d in his criticism of its $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).<\/p>\n
The actor, who has long been outspoken against Israel\u2019s military conduct in Gaza and for the rights of Palestinians, shared a statement on social media on Friday in which he highlighted the links between Paramount Skydance, run by CEO David Ellison, and Oracle, the technology company run by Ellison\u2019s father, Larry.<\/p>\n
Oracle has supplied software to the Israel Defense Forces, ministry of defense, air force, government and police for decades. Shmulik Hauser, head of Oracle\u2019s sales division, told Ynet last year<\/a>: \u201cSupporting Israel is in our DNA \u2013 even if it costs us clients. That\u2019s our agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday Ruffalo shared a video of Oracle executive vice-chair, Safra Catz, describing the \u201creally profoundly scary technology\u201d it provided to <\/a>Israel<\/a> after the 7 October attack by Hamas in 2023. Above the video, Ruffalo took aim at Larry Ellison, who he accused of \u201cusing [Oracle] to fund his son David\u2019s Warner Bros acquisition\u201d.<\/p>\n Larry Ellison, who is worth an estimated $189bn<\/a>, agreed to personally backstop $40.4bn<\/a> in equity financing to help Paramount Skydance acquire WBD in a $110.9bn deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThese \u2018really profoundly scary technologies\u2019 will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you,\u201d Ruffalo wrote. \u201cLook 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<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Ruffalo urged his followers to oppose the merger, which he argued would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for the entertainment industry due to job losses and reduced competition.<\/p>\n Though the US department of justice approved the merger in June<\/a>, it remains on hold while a federal judge considers a lawsuit from a coalition of 12 US states who have challenged the deal on antitrust grounds.<\/p>\n In a rare statement on Saturday, Paramount responded to Ruffalo, saying it was \u201ctroubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWords like \u2018genocide\u2019 and \u2018apartheid,\u2019 applied to a corporate transaction, aren\u2019t just wrong \u2013 they\u2019re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe,\u201d Paramount said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t deserve a response in kind \u2013 and to be clear, we don\u2019t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, Ruffalo responded to Paramount with a written statement.<\/p>\n \u201cCriticizing 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,\u201d Ruffalo wrote<\/a>. \u201cThis critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n The actor said his views \u201ccome from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country,\u201d he added. \u201cScrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle\u2019s 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. The $111bn deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros<\/a>., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n A Paramount spokesperson told NBC that it would make no further comment. The Guardian has contacted Oracle and Catz for comment.<\/p>\n The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation, praised Paramount for \u201crefusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism\u201d.<\/p>\n Ruffalo was among thousands of actors and film industry workers who pledged last year not to work with Israeli film institutions \u201cimplicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people\u201d.<\/p>\n A Paramount-WBD merger would bring together two of the five last legacy studios in Hollywood, as well as a host of TV networks, streaming libraries and news operations. That would include Warner\u2019s HBO Max and CNN coming under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS and the Paramount+ streaming service.<\/p>\n If the merger does not close by 30 September, it could cost Paramount Skydance around $7m a \u200cday in fees \u200cit agreed to pay Warner Bros \u200cshareholders in the event of a delay.<\/p>\n