My Tree

Jason Sherman, 2021, Canada, 102 mins

It is considered one of the most righteous acts on Earth, the simple planting of a tree. But can it be an act of destruction as well?

Keen to locate his seedling and uncover its origins, Film maker Jason Sherman embarks on a journey of discovery from Toronto to Tel Aviv. When he discovers that it may stand on the remains of razed Palestinian villages on a Jewish National Fund site called “Canada Park”, he is forced to question his own culpability.

These afforestation projects are part of a national project to expel Palestinians off their lands, and green-wash pine forest monocultures as environmental projects. During his travel, Sherman connects with a range of people with diverse views of the JNF’s forest projects, and offers a rare in-depth glimpse into the operations of this secretive charity.

Speaker / Q&A

with Manal Shqair after the screening. Manal is a Palestinian grassroots organizer, a climate activist and a researcher. Currently, Manal is doing her PhD in sociology at Queen Margaret University. Her research examines the role of Palestinian semi-nomadic women in Masafer Yatta in resisting Israeli settler colonial dispossession, intertwined with patriarchy and capitalism.