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Sheryl Nestel
Sheryl [Sheryl Baron Nestel] Nestel showed support for the pro-Hamas encampment at UofT in May 2024. Nestel promoted the encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) in April 2024, and spread hatred of Israel in January 2024.
On May 3, 2024 UofT alumna Sheryl Nestel, posted on X: “Shabbat Shalom to everyone at the U of T encampment. Big love to my comrades from the Jewish Faculty Network.” The post included an image of a table set for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, at the UofT encampment with a banner that read: “ SHABBAT IN THE LIBERATED ZONE.”
UofT is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Sheryl Nestel’s Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] the fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas encampment, which they called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.”
That day, Occupy UofT called on “community members to…help us defend our encampment” at an emergency rally in the evening. Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. The activists also chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
One speaker, Nabil Jalbout, said [00:09:02]: “...we are not fighting for peace, we are fighting for liberation, because ‘peace’ is a white man's word.” Another speaker, Ahmad Jarrar Hajahmad, claimed [00:05:52]: “All these Israeli and Zionist entities fill all these politicians with money in their pockets…we already know who runs this system…”
Signs displayed at the encampment said: “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “LIBERATION FOR ALL REQUIRES RESISTANCE FROM ALL.”
On May 4, 2024, anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted a Jewish man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:02]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew.”
Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.
Following the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - 🔻- became a Hamas symbol. This symbol appeared on large signs at the encampment multiple times. Erin Mackey, one of the primary organizers, is openly pro-Hamas, having used the symbol in her activism. In addition, pro-Hamas marches that began in other parts of the city concluded at the encampment.
On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at the request of UofT’s Governing Council, requiring students to clear the encampment. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote [slides 5-6]: “We are just getting started…come fall, every incoming student will hear our message loud and clear…Whatever institution you have access to and influence over - you need to take this campaign there!” The statement concluded: “Long live the intifada.”
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On April 25, 2024, Nestel posted on X: “Fantastic interview with anti-Zionist Jewish student organizers at Columbia/Barnard. The kids are all right.” Her post included a link to a podcast titled: “Jewish Organizing at Columbia’s Encampment.”
On January 14, 2024, Nestel posted on X: “So pleased to see Mondoweiss publish our statement on the response of the institutional Jewish community to the Gaza genocide.”
Nestel’s post included the link to a January 14, 2024 article on anti-Israel website Mondoweiss that comprised a statement written by the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine (IJCJP).
The statement said: “IJCJP wishes to express our abhorrence for the many ways in which Israel-supporting Jewish organizations in our countries have stoked the flames of racism and have embraced genocidal military violence through their support of Israel’s war on Gaza.”
The statement continued: “IJCJP fully supports South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza war and calling for an immediate suspension of its military campaign.”
On December 29, 2023, in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians executed on October 7, 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The case also called on the court to order Israel to stop its war against Hamas, called “Swords of Iron.”
Sheryl Nestel is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of August 2024, Nestel’s X bio said she was a member of anti-Israel group Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Canada. As of May 2024, Nestel wrote on IJV’s site that she was “a long time member and leader” of IJV.
As of the same date, Nestel’s speaker bio from an IJV conference held in June 2023 said she was a “founding member” of IJV and served on the “steering committees of the Jewish Faculty Network and the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine.”
As of August 2024, Nestel was listed [no. 10] as a signatory to a December 2023 petition by Faculty for Palestine (F4P).
F4P is a Canadian anti-Israel activist group modeled on the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). F4P says it opposes “Israeli apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism,” and “organizes on…boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.”
As of August 2024, Nestel’s LinkedIn profile said she worked as a consultant. As of the same date, Nestel’s ResearchGate About page said she was an “Independent Scholar -formerly at University of Toronto / Social Justice Education.”
Also as of August 2024, Nestel’s LinkedIn said she received a PhD in race and racism from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at UofT in 2000.
As of the same date, Nestel’s X account said she was located in Toronto.
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