Paramount has said it “does not tolerate prejudice of any kind” after pro-Palestinian actor Mark Ruffalo dragged the Gaza conflict into a business dispute, and accused one related executive of “revelling” in a “genocide”.
The production company is in the process, pending legal ongoings, of acquiring Warner Bros for over £80 billion - in one of the largest corporate buyouts of all time. Ruffalo, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Israel, attacked the takeover on Instagram.
Paramount is run by David Ellison, but is co-owned by his father, Larry, who owns tech firm Oracle. Oracle’s CEO, up until last year, was Safra Catz who once said: “There’s a few things that we did that I really can’t talk about to advance the agenda for the Israeli military. But we have some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle and we wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort.”
Ruffalo posted Catz’ comments on his Instagram, nd commented: “[Oracle] is the company that 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 [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.
“There is an old saying, ‘the way you do one thing is the way you do everything’.
“From one of the biggest tech companies in the world - powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world.”
The actor went on to write that Catz is a “strange woman” and that those involved are “really profoundly scary people”, including Ellison who he described as an “oligarch”.
A spokesperson for Paramount said: “[We 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.”
Paramount said Ruffalo’s post “brings us to a moment to lower the temperature, not raise it”, and added: “We’d rather build than further engage in such rhetoric.
“This simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction. On the other hand, our commitment to great content is matched by our commitment to acceptance – to every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.”
In response to Paramount’s comments, Ruffalo’s spokesman told the Telegraph: “This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinising the Ellisons, including Oracle’s 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.
Ruffalo called the antisemitism allegation: “Appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
The reply continued: “Criticising the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticising 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.”
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