Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount over 'appalling' antisemitism accusation tied to Ellison merger criticism

Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo hit back against accusations that his criticism of the Ellison family's proposed Warner Bros.

Discovery merger amounted to antisemitism, responding to Paramount in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest," Ruffalo said Saturday.

"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," he added.

PARAMOUNT ACCUSES MARK RUFFALO OF INVOKING 'ANTISEMITIC TROPES' IN WARNER BROS.

DISCOVERY MERGER DISPUTE The Marvel actor's remarks came after a Paramount spokesperson accused Ruffalo of injecting "antisemitic tropes" into what it described as a corporate dispute.

The accusation came after Ruffalo reposted video remarks of Paramount board member Safra Catz appearing to tout the "really profoundly scary technologies" the Larry Ellison co-founded company Oracle used to assist the Israeli military following the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct.

7, 2023.

Ruffalo wrote of Oracle, "This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David's Warner Bros acquisition." "These 'really profoundly scary technologies' will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.

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," he added in part.

A spokesperson for Paramount fired back, writing, "[The company is] troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," according to Variety.