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“Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder has come to the defense of Mark Ruffalo after Paramount accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” when criticizing the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
It all kicked off on Friday, when
Ruffalo shared a clip on Instagram of Paramount board member Safra Catz outlining “really profoundly scary technologies” that Oracle — the tech giant co-founded by Larry Ellison, father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is involved in the merger’s financing — used to help the Israeli military after the Oct. 7 terror attack. Ruffalo likened Larry Ellison to a “classic oligarch” and warned of the consequences if Paramount and Warner Bros. are allowed to merge, alleging that the Ellisons “are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.” Of Catz, he said: “Look how she 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 Paramount spokesperson then said in a statement that they are “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.”
On her Instagram Story on Monday night, Einbinder — who is Jewish and has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians — became the first major celebrity to publicly support Ruffalo. “I’m so grateful that Mark Ruffalo drew a connection between the Ellisons providing military technology to Israel during a genocide and their unprecedented media takeover — and pointed out that this is a dangerous consolidation of power that could ultimately be used against us,” she wrote.
“The idea that he only said these things because the Ellisons are Jewish is LUDICROUS,” Einbinder continued. “Is it also antisemitic to point out that Safra Catz, the Oracle executive vice chair who boasted about the ‘profoundly scary technology’ provided to the IDF, also sits on Paramount’s board? Or that Larry Ellison has been buying favor with Trump by donating tens of millions to his political effort for years? Or that he once offered Netanyahu a lucrative Oracle post?”
Einbinder added that “if you want to make it about the Ellisons being Jewish, then you are the one being antisemitic.” She concluded her statement by saying, “All of us artists could stand to be more like Mark, willing to speak out for oppressed people everywhere, even when powerful people try to bully us into silence. Visibility is a responsibility. Those of us with a platform need to use our voices before speaking out is outlawed altogether.”
Following his initial post, Ruffalo was also called out by Jewish advocacy groups the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Creative Communities for Peace.
“Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes,” said Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “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.”
In response to Paramount, Ruffalo wrote on X on Saturday: “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. To be clear, my views come 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.”
