Can I sue for defamation in Israel if I live abroad?

A Facebook post in a Hebrew-language community group accuses you, by name, of cheating the sellers on a Jerusalem apartment purchase. You live in Manchester. The post has 400 comments, two of your Israeli tenants have seen it, and the person who wrote it has ignored your emails. Israeli law gives you a claim, and unusually it gives you one without requiring you to prove that the post cost you a single pound.

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Detailed Answer

Section 1 of the Prohibition of Defamation Law 5725-1965 defines defamation as a publication liable to lower a person in the eyes of others, expose them to hatred or contempt, or injure them in their occupation. The provision that makes Israeli defamation litigation worth running is Section 7A, added in 1998. Under Section 7A(b) the court may award damages with no proof of loss at all, up to a ceiling originally set at NIS 50,000 and linked to the consumer price index, which puts it near NIS 84,000 in 2026. Section 7A(c) doubles that ceiling, to roughly NIS 168,000, where the claimant proves the publication was made with intent to harm. Those are ceilings rather than tariffs, and Israeli courts award the full amount sparingly, but the mechanism removes the evidential problem that defeats most reputation claims: you do not have to show lost clients. The publisher's answer will come from Section 14, which protects a publication that was true and of public interest, and Section 15, which protects a range of good-faith publications including honest opinion and complaints made to a person with a legitimate interest in receiving them. Each separate publication is a separate cause of action, which matters when the same accusation is reposted. Claims within the Section 7A ceilings are heard in the Magistrates' Court, and the ordinary seven-year limitation period under the Prescription Law 5718-1958 applies, running from publication rather than from the day you found out.

Living abroad changes the economics before it changes the law. An Israeli court has a broad discretion to order a claimant who resides outside the jurisdiction to deposit security for the defendant's costs, on the reasoning that a costs order against a foreign claimant is difficult to enforce, and a deposit of NIS 20,000 to NIS 50,000 at the outset of a defamation claim is unremarkable. That is money you put up before the case is heard, and it is refunded only if you win, a point covered in more detail in the note on security for costs for a foreign claimant in an Israeli court. Service is straightforward where the publisher is in Israel and considerably harder where the account is anonymous or the platform is foreign, because unmasking an anonymous poster requires a separate application and Israeli courts have been reluctant to grant it. Your own evidence is manageable: the Civil Procedure Regulations allow evidence by video link from abroad with the court's permission, so a single hearing rather than a fortnight in Tel Aviv is realistic. Everything is conducted in Hebrew, which means the offending post, your witness statement and any commercial documents showing reputational damage all need certified translation. A demand letter from an Israeli attorney, sent before proceedings and citing the Section 7A figures, resolves a large share of these disputes within weeks, and it costs a fraction of the security deposit.

In Practice: Section 7A(b) of the Prohibition of Defamation Law 5725-1965 allows damages with no proof of loss up to an index-linked ceiling of about NIS 84,000 in 2026, doubling to roughly NIS 168,000 under Section 7A(c) for a publication intended to harm. The claim is filed in the Magistrates' Court where the publication was read or the defendant resides, court fees run at 2.5% of the amount claimed paid in two instalments, and a claimant resident abroad should budget a further NIS 20,000 to NIS 50,000 as security for the defendant's costs. An uncontested defamation claim reaches judgment in 9 to 18 months; a defended one with a Section 14 truth defence takes 2 to 3 years.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The publication is substantially true but unfairly framed. Section 14 protects truth plus public interest, and a claim that collapses on truth ends with you paying the defendant's costs out of the security you already deposited.
• The publisher is anonymous or the platform is outside Israel. Identifying an anonymous poster requires its own application against the platform, Israeli courts grant it narrowly, and starting the substantive claim before the identity is secured wastes the filing fee.
• You are also considering a claim in your home country. Suing on the same publication in two jurisdictions invites an abuse-of-process argument in both, and the choice of forum should be made once, with advice from each side, before anything is filed.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

An Israeli attorney can assess whether the post crosses the Section 1 threshold, send a demand letter that names the Section 7A exposure, and advise whether the likely award justifies the security you will be ordered to deposit.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.