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November 3rd, 2021 
Awake Goy 
One of the most contentious bodies in Israel with powers to confiscate property owned by Palestinians has been granted the license to remain opaque despite calls for transparency and a demand to repeal the law supporting its work in continuing the ongoing expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and expropriation of their property.
Known as the Custodian of Absentee Properties, the body was set up in 1950 to be the arm through which the occupation state confiscated property left behind by Palestinians who were expelled in 1948.
The Custodian was authorised under the controversial Absentee Property Law, which was the main legal instrument used by Israel to take possession of the land belonging to the internal and external Palestinian refugees, and Muslim Waqf properties across the state. Jewish settler organisations have used this law to evict Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
Recently an Israeli law firm filed a freedom of information request to establish the number of properties that are being managed by the Custodian with little success. During the court hearing the Custodian devised new reasons to turn down the request.
READ: Israel court upholds eviction of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem
The judge sided with the Custodian and rejected the freedom of information request saying: “I have been convinced that the disclosure of the requested information may jeopardize the state’s foreign relations.”
While recently filing an appeal of the decision to the District Court former Deputy State’s Prosecutor, Shuki Lamberger, who backed the appeal, said: “This law is very powerful in regard to the state’s authority over people’s private property.”
Calling for greater transparency Lamberger went on to argue that there is public and economic importance in knowing how the Custodian conducts itself with the power granted to it, knowing how many such properties it has, how many they release, how many they sell. “This is a very unconventional law” said Lamberger. “The impression is that they’re either presenting a very imprecise picture, or that they’re not managing at all.”
In its editorial yesterday slamming the court’s decision, Haaretz said: “The Absentee Property Law is an incomparably broad and draconian law. It allows the custodian to seize the property of anyone who was in territory belonging to an enemy country during a state of emergency. But since the state of emergency originally declared during the War of Independence never ended, in principle, the state can seize the property of anyone who ever set foot in such a country, even a soldier sent by the state or a settler living in the West Bank.”
The editorial pointed out that the law isn’t used against such people and that in recent decades, it has been used mainly against hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
READ: Jordan warns Israel about enforcing Absentee Property Law in Occupied Jerusalem
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