JERUSALEM (EJP)---Pressure on Israel to refrain from building housing in East Jerusalem is "not reasonable," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday.
“I think that this demand was made, to a large extent, on the part of the international community as a sort of opportunity to attack Israel and exert pressure on Israel, and to demand things that are unreasonable,” Lieberman said in a press conference in Jerusalem with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
Israel last week announced it plans to build 1,600 new housing units in Jerusalem.
“This demand that Jews be forbidden to buy or to build in east Jerusalem is simply unreasonable,” he said, adding: “Let's consider, for example, what would happen if we forbade the Arabs of the eastern part of the city to buy apartments or to build in western Jerusalem. I asked all the leaders that I have spoken to recently and they all said "Are you crazy? If you forbid the Arabs of East Jerusalem to buy apartments or to build in the western part of the city, everyone will immediately say that you are an apartheid state."
“This kind of asymmetry is definitely not acceptable to me. We think that Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, must be accessible to all, to Muslims, to Christians and to Jews.”
“Everyone is entitled to buy apartments and to build wherever they want, and there are already thousands of Arabs from East Jerusalem who live in Jewish neighborhoods in West Jerusalem, and things will also continue that way.”
During the press confrerence, Baroness Ashton said that she believed it was in the long term interests of both Israel and the Palestinians for talks to begin "the sooner the better."
“I'm very clear about the international community's desire to see the talks begin in order to get to a two-state solution that will resolve the issues of Jerusalem and, as the Minister himself described, enable it to be a city enjoyed by all,” she said.
“I think the question becomes how best we can achieve that. And my suggestion to you is that the only way to do this is by serious negotiation to ensure the future for the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. And I believe that it's in the long-term interests of this country that this government, together with the Palestinians, determines that future. And the sooner we get to the talks, the better.”
Ashton, whose official title is High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said her visit, the first since she took office in December, “is to demonstrate the commitment of the European Union to the Middle East peace process, and our desire to be of assistance to ensure that we're able to see the proximity talks begin under Senator Mitchell, with a view to moving to full negotiations and a resolution to the conflict that will lead to the two-state solution.”
Ashton, who is also Vice President of the European Commission, said she also came to support the bilateral EU-Israel relationships. “We will have discussions about some of the economic questions between us, to ensure that we have those relationships on solid footing.”
She is on a regional tour that began Monday in Cairo and also includes Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
On Wednesday Ashton also met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni.
She is due to visit Thursday the Gaza strip, becoming one of the most senior Western political figures to visit this region since Hamas took power.
In Gaza she is scheduled to meet the UN Relief and Works Agency Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi and Palestinian economists and civil society figures. She is not expected to meet Hamas officials.
Israel has exceptionally authorised Ashton’s visit to the Gaza Strip “ in order to allow her to get a first hand impression of humanitarian activities taking place in that area."