Jane Fonda has released a statement in support of Mark Ruffalo after Paramount slammed the four-time Oscar nominee as “antisemitic” for a recent post denouncing Larry Ellison’s ties to Israel and David Ellison’s planned merger with Warner Bros.
“Especially as a Jewish American, I find it deeply troubling to see false accusations of antisemitism used to silence legitimate political criticism in this country,” Fonda wrote in a statement shared to the Committee for the 1st Amendment Instagram. “Antisemitism is real and dangerous, which is precisely why the charge should never be used as a cudgel against people whose political views you dislike, in this case as dedicated a crusader for democracy as Mark, whom we are proud to have as a Committee member and to be in this fight with us.”
“Mark Ruffalo has a First Amendment right to speak out about politics, powerful corporations and this dangerous merger — full stop,” she added. “Calling his criticism antisemitic is a smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger and to distract from the question Paramount would rather not answer: Should one company be allowed to accumulate this much power over our movies, television and news?”
On Friday, Ruffalo shared a clip to Instagram in which Paramount board member Safra Catz discussed “profoundly scary technologies” that tech giant Oracle shared with the Israeli military after the Oct. 7 terror attack. Oracle was co-founded by Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison. Ruffalo went on to liken Larry Ellison to a “classic oligarch” and warned of what would happen if Paramount and Warner Bros. were allowed to merge.
