Paramount accused actor Mark Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic tropes on Friday after he tied the Ellison family\u2019s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to Oracle\u2019s support for Israel and the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Ruffalo shared an Instagram video of Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra Catz discussing technological assistance the company provided to Israel after the Hamas-led October 7 massacre. Catz said Oracle had made unspecified \u201cprofoundly scary technology\u201d available to the Israeli military and carried out other work she could not discuss.<\/p>\n
Paramount rejects celebrity-backed Israeli Film boycott<\/p>\n
The Marvel star said Oracle was helping Larry Ellison finance his son David\u2019s acquisition and warned that its technology could become part of one of the world\u2019s largest media conglomerates and eventually be \u201cused on you.\u201d He accused Catz of reveling in what he called a \u201cgenocide\u201d built upon an \u201capartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,\u201d and branded Larry Ellison a \u201cclassic oligarch.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Wrap, Paramount said it was troubled when \u201cantisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute.\u201d It said applying the terms \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201capartheid\u201d to the transaction was \u201ca bridge too far\u201d and cheapened genuine suffering.<\/p>\n
Michael Rapaport reacts to 200 celebrities signing to free Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t deserve a response in kind,\u201d Paramount added. \u201cThis simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruffalo has campaigned against the merger for months, arguing that it would eliminate thousands of Hollywood jobs and concentrate excessive wealth and editorial power in the Ellison family. The deal is being challenged on antitrust grounds by 12 US states. The actor has also repeatedly targeted Israel over the Gaza war, calling for its \u201cboycott, divestment, sanctions and prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruffalo rejected Paramount\u2019s accusation in an X post an on Saturday as \u201cappalling and fundamentally dishonest,\u201d saying criticism of Israel\u2019s prime minister, military technology contracts or the executives behind them was not criticism of Jewish people. He professed \u201cdeep love and respect\u201d for Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount accused actor Mark Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic tropes on Friday after he tied the Ellison family\u2019s proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-593125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}