The Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved 1,100 new housing units in Jerusalem's Giloh neighborhood last week (27/09/2011) despite past U.S. objections concerning any construction that expanded Giloh. The building plan was met with heavy Western criticism. According to the French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero, France considers this decision to be provocative, calling on Israel to reconsider it and refrain from any actions that would disrupt the international community's efforts to resume Palestnian-Israeli negotiations. Britain and the European Union called on Israel to reverse the decision. "It is with deep regret that I learned today about the decision to advance in the plans for settlement expansion in east Jerusalem, with new housing units in Gilo," said Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said new settlement building would be "counter-productive" to the efforts to revive peace talks.The Quartet of international mediators (the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the U.N.) has called for talks to begin within a month and urged both sides not to take unilateral actions that could block peacemaking. Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said the new housing units Israel wants to build represented "1,100 no's to the resumption of peace talks".

In a tour of the area and briefing for foreign correspondents Sunday (02/10/2011), Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that Giloh is a neighborhood in Jerusalem and an integral part of the city: "It is not clear why every new building and every local neighborhood expansion becomes a matter of international interest." He went on to say "The reality is that, in any future agreement, the Gilo neighborhood will be part of Jerusalem and part of the State of Israel - that has never been in dispute. We are talking about a neighborhood with 40,000 inhabitants who have needs. In order to ensure that all the residents will have a place to live, a responsible government has to make sure that houses continue to be built for the people." Responding to questions from the journalists, Ayalon said, "Just as you don't expect us to prohibit construction in predominately Arab areas, you shouldn't expect us to prohibit construction in predominately Jewish areas." Ayalon added that the announcement concerning municipal building plans, in which is included the expansion of Giloh, was not timed for political effect, but is only concerned with meeting the needs of the thousands of residents. "The Palestinians use construction and the Green Line as an excuse to distract world opinion and the parties from the central issue, which is negotiations," Ayalon said. At the end of the briefing, Ayalon summed up Israel's position: "We do not intend to stop building in the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was and will always remain Israel's eternal and indivisible capital."

In a tour of Giloh conducted today this photographer found not only ongoing construction for housing that has already begun many months ago, with no relationship to the new Jerusalem District Planning Committee building plan, but also massive construction of a new neighborhood in the adjacent Arab neighborhood of Bet-Safafa, in total accord with Ayalon's statement; "This is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It cannot be divided and it will not be divided. It is very unfortunate that from far-away places people are trying to judge and depict a picture which is completely unrealistic ... what you see here is building for the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as the Jewish. Just as you wouldn't expect us to bar building from Arabs, no one can expect us to bar building from Jews."