Paramount 'blacklisting' Hollywood figures critical of Gaza genocide

Since CEO David Ellison took over, several senior staff have been dismissed for opposing the genocide in Gaza, with sources saying the studio now refuses to work with artists it considers 'hostile to Israeli interests'

News Desk

NOV 8, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/paramount-blacklisting-hollywood-figures-critical-of-gaza-genocide

Paramount Studios, led by new CEO David Ellison, has created an internal blacklist targeting Hollywood figures it considers “anti-Semitic,” Variety reported on 4 November.

The move follows a broader campaign by the studio to distance itself from growing industry criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, assumed control of the Hollywood studio in October following an $8bn merger with Skydance.

Larry Ellison, a close ally of wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the largest individual donor to the Israeli army, has long aligned his company’s operations with US and Israeli security priorities, pledging Oracle’s cloud and cybersecurity infrastructure to support Israel after the start of its genocide in Gaza.

Oracle has also moved to take control of the US TikTok algorithm under a Trump-backed deal transferring the app’s operations from China’s ByteDance to US investors. 

The company will retrain the algorithm “from the ground up” and manage all US user data through its cloud network, a role praised by Jewish advocacy groups as a safeguard against what they describe as online antisemitism. 

David Ellison is also pursuing the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which, if successful, would place some of the largest entertainment and news networks in the US under a single, openly pro-zionist leadership.

Variety reports that Paramount's new leadership under the younger Ellison has taken a hardline stance in defense of Israel, with sources claiming the studio now refuses to work with artists it deems hostile to Israeli interests.

The company has also dismissed several senior staff members seen as critical of Israel, including CBS foreign correspondent Debora Patta, who covered Israel’s genocide in Gaza extensively. 

Bari Weiss, founder of the far-right outlet The Free Press and an ardent zionist, was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News shortly after Ellison’s takeover.

In a statement released on Friday, Paramount said it “disagreed with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers,” claiming that “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”

The statement came in response to a pledge by Film Workers for Palestine, endorsed by over 4,000 actors and directors—including Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, and Olivia Colman—to boycott Israeli film institutions accused of complicity in genocide and apartheid.

The group rejected Paramount’s portrayal of the initiative, saying the pledge targets institutions, not individual artists. 

“We hope the studio is not intentionally misrepresenting the pledge in an attempt to silence our colleagues in the film industry,” the collective said.

Film Workers for Palestine also highlighted the Ellison family’s close ties to Netanyahu and the Israeli military, noting that federal filings show Larry Ellison will retain control of Paramount.

Last month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide, a determination rejected by the Israeli Foreign Ministry as “Hamas’s campaign of lies.”