Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo quote tweeted an article on his Twitter account on Thursday that tries to invalidate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
In his tweet, the actor copied and pasted a specific passage from the article, published by the nonprofit news organization The Intercept, which claims the IHRA definition is "a culmination of lobbying efforts to instrumentalize and accelerate the use of false accusations in order to censor protected speech, to target any sort of viewpoint that is critical of Israel."
The actor's tweet can be seen below:
“‘The IHRA working definition is a culmination of lobbying efforts to instrumentalize and accelerate the use of false accusations in order to censor protected speech, to target any sort of viewpoint that is critical of Israel, and to chill one side of an important political… https://t.co/vMNPtsvkkj
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 8, 2023
Non-partisan organization StopAntisemitism tweeted in response to the Hulk actor's tweet, stating that it's "interesting how you always find the fringe Jews who are against IHRA yet NEVER amplify the 90+% of Jews that are for IHRA. Why is that Mark?" Other reactions on Twitter accused the Marvel actor of antisemitism, while others told him to "stick to acting."
David Draiman, singer and frontman of the band Disturbed, wrote to the actor: "What a charlatan you are. Take off the mask Mark. You’re just a regular #antisemite masquerading as a 'human rights activist.' YOU don’t get to define things so that you’re still comfortable with your bullshit narrative."
What does the article talk about?
The Intercept article, which was published on Tuesday, was quoting Lina Assi, an advocacy manager at the US-based Palestine Legal organization, during an interview that she gave to the nonprofit news site.
Assi also claims that the IHRA definition is used to say that "anyone who supports Palestinian rights is antisemitic" - a statement that Ruffalo also included in his quote tweet.
Assi's statements that Ruffalo tweeted were included under the sub-section "Anti-Zionism vs. Antisemitism."
The article overall was a response to the possibility that US President Joe Biden may implement the definition. The article also claims that the definition has "been used to justify punitive action against Palestine advocates in Europe."
Ruffalo's previous controversial statements
This was not the first time that Ruffalo tweeted against the IHRA definition, as he tweeted another article in November of last year that urged the United Nations not to adopt the definition.
The article that he tweeted last year belonged to Al-Jazeera, which stated that the definition is “instrumentalized to deter free speech and to shield the Israeli government from accountability for its actions.”
Sam Halpern contributed to this report.