Mark Ruffalo Denies He’s Antisemitic. His Own Posts Tell A Different Story.

Mark Ruffalo’s fight with Paramount may be new. His fight with Israel definitely is not.

The “Avengers” star spent the weekend denying accusations that he invoked “antisemitic tropes,” but a trail of Ruffalo’s own posts shows his criticism of Israel stretches back more than a decade.

The latest fight started after Paramount accused Ruffalo of invoking “antisemitic tropes” while he attacked the company’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Ruffalo had shared a video of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing technology the company made available to Israel following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. Ruffalo went after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose son David runs Paramount, and warned that the technology could eventually be “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,” Ruffalo wrote.

Paramount wasn’t having it.

“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” the company said.

Paramount also called Ruffalo’s use of words like “genocide” and “apartheid” in connection with the corporate fight “a bridge too far.”

Ruffalo pushed back, calling the accusation that he is antisemitic “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,” Ruffalo said.

But Ruffalo’s posts about Israel go back years.

In 2014, he questioned accusations that Hamas was using civilians as human shields.

“Do you honestly think these people, these fellow human beings, would use their own children as shields?” Ruffalo wrote to another user. “Use your heart.”

Days later, Ruffalo shared an article claiming Hamas had not kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers.

“Wow. It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All,” the headline Ruffalo shared read.

And when criticism started flying over his Gaza posts, Ruffalo had an answer for that, too.

“Empathizing w/ Gaza does NOT make me anti-Semitic, nor pro-Hamas or anti-Israel,” Ruffalo wrote. “It makes me human.”

Fast forward to 2021 when Ruffalo was calling for sanctions against Israel and comparing the country to apartheid-era South Africa.

“Sanctions on South Africa helped free its black people,” Ruffalo wrote before calling for sanctions on Israel to “free Palestinians.”
He repeated the comparison days later while posting about Palestinian deaths in Gaza.

Then Ruffalo walked it back.

Later that month, the actor apologized for posts suggesting Israel was committing “genocide.”

“I have reflected & wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide,’” Ruffalo wrote.

He called the characterization “not accurate,” “inflammatory,” and “disrespectful.” Ruffalo also acknowledged something else about the rhetoric.

“It’s being used to justify antisemitism here & abroad,” he wrote.

The apology, though, didn’t stop Ruffalo from continuing to weigh in on Israel. In November 2023, Ruffalo went after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyahu discussed civilian casualties in Gaza.

“They aren’t ‘collateral damage’ either,” Ruffalo wrote, referring to Palestinians. “They are human beings who happen to have been born there and live there and most of those human beings are stuck there.”

Ruffalo has continued criticizing Israel and its handling of the war in Gaza in the years since. Now, the word he publicly apologized for using in 2021 has made another appearance.

Five years after Ruffalo called his “genocide” characterization inflammatory and acknowledged that it was being used to justify antisemitism, he is using the word again. Only this time, Paramount is accusing him of invoking “antisemitic tropes.”