The State of Israel's use of the Absentee Property Law to take over thousands of acres of private Palestinian landholdings in southeast Jerusalem in 2004 betrays the political motivations behind construction of the security barrier.

Ir Amim appealed twice to the Attorney General to stop application of this law and to publish the list of landholders affected. In response, the Attorney General published a press release repudiating its use and reaffirming the policy of former Attorney General and former Supreme Court President Meir Shemgar, who in 1968 declared that the law should not be applied in East Jerusalem.