U of T expert on how Trump's Jerusalem decision changes 'everything – and nothing'

U.S. President Donald Trump’s move this week to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is both significant and irrelevant, writes University of Toronto's Janice Stein in a Globe and Mail op-ed.

“With one stroke, he changed everything – and nothing,” writes Stein, a professor and the founding director of the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

The move is significant, she writes, because of people’s deep attachments to history and memory. For Jewish people in Israel, that attachment involves a unique connection, with Jerusalem being central to Jewish narratives for about 3,000 years. For Muslims, Jerusalem is part of Islamic history – and, writes Stein, “it is disquieting and hurtful that this connection was not officially recognized.”

For Palestinians, she writes, Jerusalem “is part of a national narrative that is laced with loss and grief.”

But Stein outlines the many ways Trump has changed nothing: The U.S. embassy is unlikely to move before the next presidential election, Israelis will continue to avoid most of the old city of Jerusalem for safety reasons, and Palestinians will continue to assert their claim to Eastern Jerusalem as their capital.

“When the days of rage are over, Jerusalem will look much the same as it did before they began,” Stein writes.

Read the full op-ed in the Globe and Mail