CCFP Denounces Mark Ruffalo’s Ellison Attack as Antisemitic

Creative Community for Peace Condemns Mark Ruffalo Over Ellison Family Dispute

“Hollywood should not accept this kind of rhetoric from anyone,” CCFP Executive Director Ari Ingel said in a statement provided to the Jewish Journal on Saturday. Ingel argued that Ruffalo’s message crossed the boundary separating legitimate corporate criticism from historic tropes. According to the CCFP statement, Ruffalo’s comments echoed ancient conspiracy theories depicting Jewish people as a wealthy, sinister elite controlling money, media, and power.

The controversy began when Ruffalo shared a video of Israeli-American Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra Catz discussing assistance Oracle provided to Israel following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. Catz stated that Oracle possessed “really profoundly scary technology” that the company wanted to make available to the Israeli military. Ruffalo seized on the phrasing, warning his social-media followers that the technology could eventually enter a major media conglomerate and be “used on you.” He accused Catz of reveling in a genocide “built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.” Furthermore, Ruffalo labeled Oracle founder Larry Ellison a “classic oligarch,” accusing powerful figures of consolidating global wealth for concentrated dominance.

Paramount Response and Broader Industry Fallout

Paramount condemned Ruffalo’s remarks, stating that utilizing antisemitic tropes during a business dispute crossed a line. According to a company spokesperson, Paramount “does not tolerate prejudice against anyone.” The studio also previously opposed a 2025 pledge signed by Ruffalo and thousands of other entertainment figures through Film Workers for Palestine, which promised to boycott Israeli film institutions considered complicit in genocide and apartheid.

CCFP noted that the latest dispute fits into a longer pattern of activism by the actor. Ingel pointed out that Ruffalo supported BDS and campaigns to isolate and demonize Israel for nearly a decade. Ingel also referenced a 2021 incident where Ruffalo accused Israel of committing genocide before subsequently apologizing for the language, which he then called inaccurate, inflammatory, and utilized to justify antisemitism.

Additionally, CCFP accused Ruffalo of amplifying unsupported casualty claims, citing a warning he shared that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours. That figure originated from United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, though the underlying food-security assessment actually projected more than 14,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition among children aged six months to five years over the span of roughly a year. CCFP stated Ruffalo also circulated a claim that the Gaza death toll reached 680,000, including 380,000 children under five—an estimate raised by U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who attributed it to unnamed scholars while acknowledging it was unconfirmed.

Mark Ruffalo Rejects Accusations and Defends Industry Scrutiny

Ruffalo rejected the accusations of antisemitism in a statement issued on Saturday. “The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” he wrote, asserting that his criticism of Israel’s prime minister, military-technology contracts, and corporate executives should not be equated with hostility toward Jewish people, for whom he stated he holds “deep love and respect.”

The actor defended his scrutiny of Oracle’s surveillance technology and government contracts. He also argued that the proposed Paramount-Warner merger threatens editorial independence and could eliminate thousands of jobs within the entertainment industry. Ingel responded that intent does not erase impact, arguing that repeatedly amplifying inflammatory falsehoods normalizes violent anti-Jewish hatred.