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Source: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=288607
Israel Objects to EU Condemnation of Jerusalem Construction
(Jerusalem Post) Tovah Lazaroff - After EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday condemned a plan to build 797 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Saturday the EU's condemnation harms the peace process and ignores the fact that the unified city is Israel's capital. "These automatic condemnations indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of the reality of the region," Lieberman said. "These condemnations do not contribute anything to the advancement of talks between Israelis and Palestinians. They only encourage the Palestinians to continue to refuse to participate in negotiations and to continue their anti-Israel activity in the international arena." Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on Saturday, "Gilo is an inseparable part of Jerusalem and we are not going to apologize for that. We will continue to build tens of thousands of apartments across the entire city for all sectors. The only way to lower the price of apartments is to continue building without stopping, as we are now doing in order to allow young people to live in Jerusalem and build themselves a future."