The creator of the award-winning Israeli action series “Fauda” has called the U.S. actor and producer Mark Ruffalo “a rare combination” of ignorant and stupid over his claims of genocide in Gaza.
The criticism comes just weeks after the Oscar-nominated actor became embroiled in an antisemitism row with Paramount Pictures, with support for Israel taking center stage.
“Mark Ruffalo saying ‘genocide, genocide.’ Then you know that there’s a kind of people that are ignorant, there are some people that are stupid. He’s a rare combination of those two,” Avi Issacharoff said at an event in London last week.
“I’m sorry to say that,” the Israel and Middle East analyst and producer continued. “Do you understand what it means, ‘genocide’?” he asked. “Do you, as a lead actor in Hollywood, understand that when Israel allows every day 600 trucks of food and supply to go into Gaza, they are not intending or planning to kill the people of Palestine? Do you understand if more people were born during the war in Gaza than died, so no one was trying to eliminate those people and the only ones that were trying to commit genocide were Hamas people? And that guy and many other people don’t get it.”
A veteran Israeli journalist, Issacharof co-created the hit political thriller “Fauda,” whose fifth season premieres globally on Netflix this week.
Rufallo, who has been a strong opponent of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as Paramount’s pending takeover of Warner Bros., became entangled in the antisemitism dispute last month after he accused a Jewish Paramount board member of “reveling” in “genocide.”
Paramount blasted the actor’s usage of the words “genocide” and “apartheid” in connection with the business transaction as peddling antisemitism, and said that it does not tolerate prejudice of any kind.
An unapologetic Ruffalo rejected the accusation of antisemitism as “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
As the fracas escalated, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center backed Paramount, commending it for “drawing a line” when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitism.
