Israeli Law Q&A for United Kingdom Residents

No. The 2019 Hague Judgments Convention entered into force for the United Kingdom on 1 July 2025, but Israel signed it on 3 March 2021 and has not ratified it, so it creates no route between the two countries. An English money judgment is still enforced under the Foreign Judgments Enforcement Law 5718-1958, helped by the 1970 UK-Israel convention on reciprocal enforcement, through an application to an Israeli District Court made within five years of the judgment under Section 5.

Not without a real risk of losing that argument, at least for now. Section 87 of the Income Tax Ordinance is designed to keep pension savings locked until retirement age, and an early withdrawal carries a 35% Israeli tax charge deducted by the fund. Returning Britons point to the UK-Israel convention, under which pensions paid to a UK resident are taxable only in the UK, but in an interim decision in Civil Appeal 1740-12-24 the District Court signalled that this will not be easy to prove. The final judgment is still awaited.

Your English registration counts for nothing on its own, but the Israeli test is academic rather than status-based, which makes it unusually friendly to preparation from abroad. Under Section 9 of the Social Workers Law 5756-1996 a person holding a foreign degree in social work qualifies once the Minister recognises that degree. Sections 2 and 3 then make entry in the Register of Social Workers the gate to practice, and Section 4 forbids anyone from employing an unregistered person in social work.

Yes. Section 9 of the Insolvency and Economic Rehabilitation Law 5778-2018 lets a creditor apply to the District Court for an order to open proceedings against an insolvent company, and a foreign creditor has the same standing as an Israeli one. You do not have to prove the balance sheet. A written demand for a debt exceeding roughly NIS 88,461 that goes unpaid for 30 days raises a presumption of insolvency, and so does an unsatisfied judgment. It is a pressure tool as much as a recovery tool, because in a liquidation an unsecured creditor is usually last in the queue.

For this one cohort, largely yes. Legislation passed on 31 March 2026 as part of the Economic Efficiency Law grants olim and veteran returning residents who become Israeli residents between 5 November 2025 and 31 December 2026 an exemption on Israeli earned income, capped at NIS 1,000,000 in 2026 and 2027, NIS 600,000 in 2028, NIS 350,000 in 2029 and NIS 150,000 in 2030. It covers salary and self-employed business income only. Dividends, interest and rent are outside it.

Yes. The Indirect Taxes (Overpaid or Underpaid Tax) Law 5728-1968 gives the Israel Tax Authority a determining period of five years for imported goods, counted from the day the shortfall arose. Section 3 provides a narrow good faith defence, but it fails if the shortfall came from information you supplied, which is what usually happens when the declared transaction value is challenged.

They can, if enough other holders accept. Under the tender offer provisions in Sections 336 to 340 of the Companies Law 5759-1999, a full tender offer that is accepted by holders of at least 95% of the shares carries the remaining shares compulsorily, and below that threshold the bidder cannot cross 90%. If you are squeezed out you have an appraisal remedy for six months, unless the offer validly required tendering holders to waive it.

You file a debt claim (*tvi'at chov*) with the trustee, and you have six months from publication of the order opening proceedings under Section 210 of the Insolvency and Economic Rehabilitation Law 5778-2018. The trustee decides under Section 211, and a creditor unhappy with that decision appeals to the District Court within 45 days. Nobody chases a foreign creditor to file, and the clock runs from publication in Israel rather than from the day you heard about it.

A fee set by regulation, not by the branch. The Banking Order (Early Repayment of a Housing Loan) 5762-2002 allows an operational fee capped at NIS 60 per loan tranche, a no-notice fee of 0.1% where you give under ten days notice, and a capitalisation differential fee that can run into tens of thousands of shekels. Section 4(3) removes the capitalisation fee entirely if you repay on a tranche's interest change date, and Section 8 cuts it by 30% where more than five years of the term remain.

Do not assume so. Israeli legal professional privilege comes from Section 48 of the Evidence Ordinance [New Version] 5731-1971, which protects material exchanged between a client and a lawyer in connection with the professional service, backed by the confidentiality duty in Section 90 of the Bar Association Law 5721-1961. The privilege is the client's and Israeli courts treat it as strong, but it is framed around the lawyer's professional service and it is lost where a third party is party to the communication, or where the advice relates to a future or continuing crime or fraud. Whether an English solicitor's correspondence falls inside it is argued case by case, and it is not something to test for the first time in a disclosure affidavit.

Probably not. Section 6(c) of the Dentists Ordinance [New Version] 5739-1979 makes an examination set by the Director-General of the Ministry of Health a condition of licensure, but a dentist who holds a valid overseas licence and has practised for at least five of the previous seven years in the country of qualification can be exempted from both the theoretical and the practical papers. Eleven years in the United Kingdom clears that threshold comfortably. One failed attempt at an Israeli paper destroys the exemption permanently.

Only with your eyes open. Section 79A of the Courts Law [Consolidated Version] 5744-1984 lets a judge decide the case by way of compromise, with the parties' consent, on the documents alone, with no cross-examination and usually no full reasons. It is fast and cheap and it is close to unappealable, so it suits an heir abroad who wants an end more than a precedent, and it is the wrong choice where the outcome turns on credibility.