Artificial Intelligence · Israel
AI regulation in Israel: laws & policy (2026)
Israel shaded by its artificial intelligence status
AI in Israel: guidelines only, anchored by Government 'Policy on Artificial Intelligence Regulation and Ethics' (Dec 2023), led by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology with the Ministry of Justice, a non-binding 'Responsible Innovation' framework favoring sectoral, soft-law regulation rather than a single horizontal AI statute..
Israel has no comprehensive or binding AI-specific law. It governs AI through a December 2023 government policy that sets non-binding ethics principles and directs existing sectoral regulators to apply risk-proportionate, soft-law tools (guidance, sandboxes, voluntary standards). A May 2025 National AI Program and a 2025 draft Privacy Protection Authority guidance applying existing privacy law to AI are the main recent developments; horizontal legislation remains a possibility, not a current plan.
Key points
The December 2023 'Policy on AI Regulation and Ethics' is a government policy document, not legislation. It adopts a 'Responsible Innovation' approach and a set of AI ethics principles drawn from the OECD AI Recommendation, applied by individual sector regulators rather than a single AI law.
Israel deliberately rejected an EU AI Act-style horizontal statute in favor of a decentralized model where specialized regulators craft fit-for-purpose, risk-based rules using soft tools (non-binding guidance, sector codes, standards), while reserving the option of horizontal legislation if cross-sector challenges emerge.
The Privacy Protection Authority published draft guidance (April 2025, open for comment to June 5, 2025) interpreting how the existing Protection of Privacy Law and its Amendment 13 (in force August 2025) apply to AI systems, covering lawful processing, transparency, and notice for automated decision-making. It applies existing law to AI rather than creating new AI-specific binding rules.
The Israel Innovation Authority published a multi-year National Program for AI (≈NIS 1 billion) covering compute, data, talent, regulatory components, public-sector adoption, and innovation/experimentation tools, a strategy and capacity-building program, not a regulatory statute.
Israel is developing regulatory sandboxes for AI, including Ministry of Justice white papers/legislative guidelines on sandbox design (early 2025) and an Innovation Authority sandbox for breakthrough AI in healthcare, experimentation tools consistent with the soft-law, sector-led approach.
The policy establishes an AI Policy Coordination Center (knowledge center) within the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology to advise and coordinate sectoral regulators, manage forums, and lead international collaboration; it is expected to issue a 'Risk Management Toolbox' of standardized templates for regulators.
Timeline - major decisions & events
The most sweeping overhaul of Israeli privacy law since 1981 took effect, granting the Privacy Protection Authority administrative fining powers (up to ~5% of turnover), database-suspension and investigative authority, the primary legal lever currently used to police large-scale data processing in AI systems.
IAPP ↗The Privacy Protection Authority began exercising its new enforcement powers, including a 75,000 NIS fine for misuse of personal data, signaling that the strengthened privacy regime governing AI data practices now has practical teeth.
AI-Law (Israel) ↗Israel's first regulator-issued AI guidance applies the Privacy Protection Law to AI systems, stating that scraping personal data to train models without informed consent is unlawful and setting expectations on transparency, consent, accountability and platform anti-scraping duties.
Gornitzky (summary of PPA draft) ↗Israel signed the first binding international treaty on AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law on the day it opened for signature, having helped shape it as an observer state, anchoring its framework to international standards.
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs ↗Israel committed roughly NIS 500 million (~$133M) to Phase 2 (running to 2027) for R&D infrastructure, a National AI Research Institute and compute capacity, deepening the state's investment-led approach to AI competitiveness.
Israel Innovation Authority ↗The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology with the Ministry of Justice issued Israel's official AI policy, favoring a sector-specific, risk-based, soft-law approach (ethical principles, voluntary standards, sandboxes) coordinated by a planned national AI policy center rather than a single binding statute.
Government of Israel (gov.il) ↗MIST published a white paper for public comment proposing six AI ethics principles (responsible innovation, human-centricity, equality, transparency, robustness, accountability) and a decentralized, OECD-aligned, sector-led governance model, the blueprint for the 2023 policy.
White & Case (AI Watch) ↗Israel's armed forces adopted a cross-branch AI strategy and established a centralized AI department as part of a digital transformation, reflecting how defense and national-security AI sit largely outside the civilian regulatory framework.
C4ISRNET / Defense News ↗Israel rolled out its multi-billion-shekel National AI Program (~NIS 5.3B planned) to build compute infrastructure, research capacity and talent, setting an innovation-and-investment foundation that long preceded any dedicated AI statute.
OECD.AI ↗Israel - other topics
Artificial Intelligence in other countries
Last verified 5/23/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Methodology & how to cite · Explore the full world map →