Sherry Millner

Overview

Sherry Millner has engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of March 2023, Millner’s LinkedIn page said she was a media artist and a professor at the College of Staten Island (CSI) of the City University of New York (CUNY) since 1999. 

As of the same date, Millner’s LinkedIn said she was located in New York, New York.

Anti-Israel Activism

In July 2022, Millner signed [p. 4] an anti-Israel statement titled: “Not In Our Name: Anti-Zionist Jewish Coalition at CUNY.”

The statement read [p. 1]: “Palestinian voices are at the core of our coalition and we stand to uphold their demands for global liberation, resistance by any means necessary, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the return of all land prior to 1948, and ending the occupation.”

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.  

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The statement also said [p. 1]: “We stand with the growing movement at CUNY for Palestinian freedom that includes CUNY4Palestine, Within Our Lifetime (with emphasis on Nerdeen Kiswani who faces multiple smear campaigns from homegrown Zionists within CUNY and outside of it with zero support from the CUNY administration), and all Palestinian solidarity groups within CUNY without question.”



Millner signed [p. 4] a May 2021 statement titled: “CUNY Community Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

The statement read [p. 1]: “We condemn the brutal bombing of Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, by Israeli forces. This represents the latest chapter of a nearly-fifteen-year illegal blockade that has transformed the territory into a prison…”

Israel and Egypt implemented a United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.

The statement further said [p. 1]: “We condemn the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah…designed to advance the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem. We oppose the raiding of the al-Aqsa mosque, and the de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, which is illegally occupied territory.”

Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

The statement also included [p. 2] a BDS clause which read: “...we pledge to: • Initiate, support, and amplify campaigns in solidarity with Palestinian calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, at CUNY and in our wider communities.”

In August 2019, Miller was listed as one of the signatories of a letter “demanding the immediate removal of the visa restrictions posed on academics teaching or visiting at the Palestinian universities in the Occupied West Bank.” 

The letter, which the Academia for Equality posted to Facebook on August 22, 2019, was titled: “Canceling visa restrictions on foreign academics hired to teach in Palestinian academic institutions.”

The letter read: “We, the undersigned, members of the international academic community, demand that the Israeli authorities immediately cease to restrict international academics from working at Palestinian Universities and other academic institutions.”

The letter further said: “At Birzeit University | جامعة بيرزيت alone, twelve departments or affiliated institutions now face losing faculty members in the coming academic year...”

In January 2016, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) swept Birzeit’s campus, seizing Hamas propaganda. The University characterized the sweep as a "belligerent military attack on the university and our right to education and all the principles involved in the freedom of education."  

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.

Social Media and Weblinks

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/sherry.millner/ 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-millner-3450a995/ 

University Website:https://www.csi.cuny.edu/campus-directory/sherry-millner 

Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry_Millner