On July 1, 2004, the High Court of Justice issued an interim injunction preventing the completion of the barrier along the village of Nu'man. The injunction also prohibits the expulsion of residents of the village or their arrest for being in Israel illegally. The injunction was given the day after the Court voided another section of the barrier to the north-east of Jerusalem.

Palestinians began settling in Nu'man in the 1930s. In 1967, the village was annexed into Jerusalem, but Israeli officials mistakenly registered the village residents as residents of the West Bank and did not issue them Israeli identity cards. The Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality continue to refuse to recognize them as Israeli residents and consider them to be illegally in their homes.

Israel continues to build the separation barrier east of Nu'man, which will cut the village off from the rest of the West Bank. At this stage of construction, only a narrow opening exists through which the residents are able to go to nearby West Bank villages. If Israel does not recognize the special situation of Nu'man, this opening will be closed and its residents trapped between the barrier and the physical roadblocks that prevent them from reaching other parts of Jerusalem.

Earlier this week, B'Tselem requested from Interior Minister Avraham Poraz to recognize residents of Nu'man as permanent residents of Israel. Until that time, B'Tselem urges Poraz to grant the residents temporary permits to enter and stay in Jerusalem, which will prevent expulsion of the residents from their homes and enable them to exhaust their legal remedies.