‘Fauda’ Creator Calls Mark Ruffalo a ‘Rare Combination’ of ‘Stupid’ and ‘Ignorant’ After His Viral Statement on Paramount: ‘Do You Understand What It Means, “Genocide”?’

“Fauda” creator Avi Issacharoff has criticized Mark Ruffalo’s interpretation of the Israel-Hamas conflict, including his repeated claims of “genocide” in Gaza.

“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,” Issacharoff said during a panel in London.

“I’m sorry to say that,” the Middle East analyst and producer continued. “Do you understand what it means ‘genocide’? 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.”

Issacharoff co-created hit Israeli political thriller “Fauda” alongside actor Lior Raz, the fourth season of which returns to Netflix next week. He is also a journalist and political commentator who has written multiple books on the Middle East.

Ruffalo, who has been outspoken over both the conflict in Gaza and the pending Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, has been at the center of a heated debate over the past two weeks after he posted a story on Instagram about the merger in which he accused a Jewish Paramount board member of “reveling” in “genocide.”

Paramount released a response calling the post “antisemitic,” prompting a slew of open letters from opposing camps in support of either Ruffalo or Paramount. Ruffalo himself called the accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”

One letter supportive of Ruffalo was signed by 180 Jewish figures, including Hannah Einbinder, Joel Coen, numerous professors and an astrologer.

Issacharoff, who was speaking at a Jewish News event in London for the Tel Aviv University Trust, noted, “Even Jewish people don’t get it. Why? Because it’s kind of, you know, cool and nice to come on stage and say ‘Fuck this’ and ‘Fuck Israel.’”

But the producer conceded that he is unlikely to change their minds. “Something way bigger than that needs to happen in order for them to be a bit more smart, less ignorant, less stupid. But at the end of the day, you know, I do believe that I’m an optimistic guy. At the end of the day, the fact that I live in Israel proves that. And you have to believe that one day people will understand reality better and won’t surrender to all kinds of slogans and clichés and lies that are being spread.”