CHRISTIAN TOTO: Pop Culture Puts Antisemitism on Blast (Finally).
It’s a massive problem, one that late-night stars like Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon won’t touch.
And then there’s Mark Ruffalo.
The “Avengers” star is one of Hollywood’s most strident pro-Palestinian voices. And, as is often the case with that sub-set, the messaging can appear critical of more than just the Jewish state.
This week, Ruffalo attacked the proposed Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger, but he didn’t stop there.
The actor shared a video of Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra Catz discussing the company’s assistance to Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks. “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,” Ruffalo wrote on his social media channels.
Team Paramount swiftly fired back, accusing the star of spreading antisemitic language.
“We are, as always, 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.
The mega-studio wasn’t the only one to lash out at Ruffalo. Sharon Waxman, the veteran Hollywood journalist and founder of the far-Left TheWrap.com, took the unusual move to call out Ruffalo directly.
Naturally, Ruffalo is in full “I’m not antisemitic, I’m merely anti-Zionist” mode in response to Paramount’s pushback:
The thing people like this never acknowledge is that the majority of the anti-Israel sentiment is just people who hate Jews and don’t give a rat’s ass about Palestinians. And yes, that influences you when you hang around such people all the time. https://t.co/AH2jfSmQ8k
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) August 22, 2026
But Ruffalo chose his initial tropes carefully:
Ruffalo has always been an unhinged anti-Semite, but there is a method to his current madness. He is seeking to establish that American Jews who support Israel cannot conduct business. As Jews in Nazi Germany could not conduct business. https://t.co/eFRdcPKYZd
— Ayn Reagan (@AynReagan) August 22, 2026
He’s now “trying to walk it back by saying criticism of the Israeli government or a tech contract is somehow different. It’s not. Injecting those specific words into a corporate fight against Jewish business leaders is the problem.”
Mark Ruffalo is now claiming he’s not antisemitic after using classic tropes in a business dispute.
He dragged “genocide” and “apartheid” into an attack on the Paramount merger, specifically targeting Jewish executives and their ties to Israel. Paramount correctly called it what…
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) August 22, 2026
“No studio should want this. Disney, Marvel, and every other employer should drop him. Antisemitism is not a political opinion that deserves a free pass because the person is a famous actor.”
To be fair, he’s probably safe at Disney, at least based on their past reputation: