JERUSALEM, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman continued Wednesday to slam the European Union's critique on Israel's construction in the settlements.
"Anyone calling the settlements an obstacle for peace is gravely mistaken," Lieberman said Wednesday morning at a diplomatic conference held by the Jerusalem Post.
"We have witnessed the outcome of settlements evacuation and the international community should understand that," he added.
The Israeli foreign minister also said that the Europeans have decided to "pressure only one side -- ours" and ignore the terrorism acts perpetrated by the Palestinians.
European foreign ministers on Monday harshly criticized Israel' s announcement that it was planning to construct over 3,000 housing units in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the E1 territorial stretch connecting them.
The decision to build in the settlements was made as part of punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority for having its status upgraded to that of a non-member observer state in the United Nations late last month.
On Tuesday evening, Lieberman, talking at a holiday event of his party in Tel Aviv, said that the Palestinians "will not see one red cent" of the tax revenues Israel collects on its behalf for at least another four months.
"They owe us 1.6 billion NIS (about 0.42 billion U.S. dollars), " Lieberman said. "In the next four months, we will offset the debt and after that decided if we will renew the transfer of funds or not," he added.
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