Actor Mark Ruffalo’s apology for social media posts that he said suggested Israel was “committing ‘genocide'” amid the recent fighting with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is drawing praise and backlash — highlighting the delicate and fraught nature of the longstanding conflict.
Ruffalo, an outspoken Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated actor, tweeted Monday that he had “reflected & wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide'” and that “it’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful & is being used to justify antisemitism here & abroad.”
The fighting had escalated for nearly two weeks this month, leaving hundreds dead, the majority Palestinians, and parts of the impoverished Gaza Strip reduced to rubble. A bilateral cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas took hold Friday, but the conflict sparked massive pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the world.
In the United States, the protests have attracted diverse groups of people, and pro-Palestinian activists have demanded that America end its funding of Israel’s military, saying the Biden administration is complicit in “war crimes” in the region, and are calling for an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Meanwhile, American Jewish organizations have reported a wave of antisemitic incidents and apparent hate crime attacks, including against synagogues in suburban Chicago and Tucson, Arizona. Jewish people have also been physically assaulted and harassed in the streets of Los Angeles, New York and South Florida, leading President Joe Biden on Monday to condemn the “hateful behavior.” Mosques have also reported anti-Muslim vandalism this month, with one house of worship in Brooklyn getting spray-painted with the phrase, “Death to Palestine.”
It’s unclear what posts Ruffalo was apologizing for, but he suggested in a May 11 tweet that Israel’s actions were comparable to apartheid in South Africa and that sanctions could similarly work against Israel.
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