Standards Institution of Israel

Standardization, quality, and safety are the SII’s statutory objectives, pursued through standards development, testing, and certification.[1] Its stated purposes include protecting consumer health and safety and the environment, improving goods and services supplied in Israel, and strengthening the competitiveness of Israeli products and services at home and abroad.[5]

The institution’s laboratories test thousands of product types in fields including construction, industry, and agriculture.[1] Its principal revenues come from standards-compliance laboratory testing and certification of manufacturing and construction processes in public and private companies against Israeli and international standards.[1] It tests goods manufactured both in Israel and abroad, and certified items display the “tav teken,” or Standards Mark, symbol.[6]

The SII’s authority to formulate Israeli Standards is distinct from the government’s authority to make standards binding and enforce them.[7] Published standards are generally voluntary unless an applicable legal or regulatory measure makes them compulsory; enforcement of official standards belongs to the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Commissioner of Standardization rather than the institution itself.[7]

The SII grew out of a construction testing station established by the British Mandatory government, part of the institutional development of scientific activity before Israeli independence.[8] The Standards Law, passed in 1953, established its statutory framework, while bylaws published in 1954 provided the basis for its day-to-day operation.[5] A 2016 account placed the adoption of its name and principal activity in the mid-1950s.[9]

Israeli standards legislation continued to develop through amendments and related rules.[10] A consolidated English-language publication issued in 2005 incorporated seven amendments to the original 1953 law.[10] A second-edition English compilation published in 2013 included the Standards Law, rules for formulating Israeli and temporary standards, the SII’s 2002 bylaws, and related enactments.[11]

In 2011, approximately 3,200 Israeli standards were reported, including 600 requiring testing or oversight by the institution, with standards divided into three groups according to risk.[12] A proposed ministerial compromise that year envisaged adopting international standards by the end of 2012 and transferring checks on some declaration-based imports to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.[12] The proposal also envisaged stronger powers for the standards commissioner to hold importers responsible for public harm and recall defective products, although parts remained unsettled.[12] In 2016, the commissioner gave a dated figure of 500 mandatory standards across different fields.[9]

A comprehensive 2016 amendment to the Standards Law opened standards-compliance testing of imported products to competition.[1] Related reforms enacted during 2016–2018 also amended the Import and Export Ordinance, changed committee composition, and enabled private laboratories recognized by the Standards Commissioner to test imported goods.[13] Their stated aims were to improve institutional efficiency and reduce testing costs and times while maintaining public safety and conformity-testing quality; the relevant ordinance amendment took effect in April 2018.[13]

Further amendments adopted on August 4, 2024, permitted covered imports meeting EU quality standards or certification to receive certification without additional SII regulatory approval.[4] Most provisions took effect on January 1, 2025, covering dozens of consumer products, including agricultural goods.[4] Israel announced in March 2025 that it intended to extend reform to U.S.-certified products, and legislation passed in July 2026 fast-tracked certain such imports while excluding agricultural products.[4]

The SII alone is authorized under the Standards Law to designate specifications and technical rules, including technical definitions, as Israeli Standards.[7] Its standardization division coordinates hundreds of public committees involving thousands of representatives and experts from manufacturing, consumer organizations, contracting, importing, research institutions, laboratories, and government.[7] The resulting standards serve industry, construction, government, commerce, and consumers.[7]

Any citizen, organization, or institution may initiate preparation of a standard.[14] Committees representing interested parties can develop a new standard or adopt an appropriate international one, circulate a draft for public comment, revise it, obtain public standardization committee approval, and distribute it through the information center.[14] Committee members serve as public representatives rather than as members of the SII.[14]

The Minister of Economy and Industry may declare all or part of a standard official after consulting manufacturers’ and consumers’ representatives and meeting the legal criteria.[7] Relevant objectives include health, safety, environmental protection, consumer information, product compatibility, and preventing significant economic harm arising from certain construction products or materials.[7]

Testing services cover products, processes, and services, while certification includes the Standards Mark, Green Mark, Safety Mark, and management-system certifications such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.[2] The Standards Mark system dates to the 1953 law and is voluntary; Standards Mark and Safety Mark licenses indicate conformity with the relevant standard.[15] Separate requirements provide for SII supervision of specified products and manufacturing processes identified by the Standardization Commissioner.[15]

The laboratories provide import-procedure advice, registration assistance, and testing under international standards, alongside their role in screening products for health and safety hazards.[16] Testing and calibration follow Israeli Standard SI 17025, legal and customer requirements, and applicable accreditation requirements.[16] In vehicle spare-parts regulation, manufacturers and importers must maintain internal or external quality-control systems, with SII checks required where mandated for a particular product.[17]

The Quality and Certification Branch reports offering certification for about 30 management systems, including quality, environmental management, medical devices, information security, occupational health and safety, and aerospace quality.[18] Its published figures give approximately 8,000 active customers holding 8,500 certificates, a 70% share of Israel’s certification market, and annual customer retention exceeding 98%.[18] These institutional figures accompany its description of itself as the country’s largest certification body since 1993.[18]

Training services include courses, seminars, workshops, and organizational training, with tens of thousands of people certified annually in quality-assurance disciplines.[2] The Information Center offers free viewing of Israeli and international standards, assistance locating standards, collections, database access, and subscriptions with updates.[19] Consumer-information services include articles and a list of certified items; a government guide lists the institution at 42 Chaim Levanon Street in Tel Aviv.[6]

The executive board described in the SII’s 2024 annual report comprises the chair, the Commissioner of Standardization, and 13 additional members appointed from sectors of the economy.[5] The chair and commissioner serve by virtue of their offices, and the institution is subject to state-auditor oversight.[5] Fees for services follow a price list approved by the Minister of Economy and Industry.[5]

A 2020 account placed employment at approximately 900 people, compared with 1,200 at its peak.[20] It reported that Moses Terry was expected to become chair following a vacancy left by Uri Dori’s death about a year earlier.[20] The same account cited 2015 financial figures of NIS 403 million in testing revenue, including government subsidies, and NIS 398 million in expenses.[20]

A November 2017 collective labor agreement created a three-stage early-retirement program for up to 300 permanent employees in anticipation of competition in imported-goods testing.[1] Between January 2018 and November 2020, 140 permanent employees retired under the agreement, at a total cost of approximately NIS 263.4 million, including about NIS 219.3 million funded by the Ministry of Finance.[13]

The Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law of 1998 lists the SII among entities ineligible for a specified exemption from accessibility accommodations on grounds of unreasonable fiscal-economic burden.[21] During the 2014 Op-Israel cyber campaign, 1,300 email addresses and passwords associated with the institution were published, although the account did not establish whether they belonged to the institution itself or other associated accounts.[22]

The SII participates in the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission and maintains recognition agreements intended to facilitate foreign trade.[2] Its international-standardization work provides a framework for Israeli industry, startups, academia, and government to participate in standards development.[2]

A program developed with the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Foreign Trade Administration supported Israeli companies’ full membership in international standards committees through professional guidance and financial assistance for overseas meetings.[23] Examples reported in 2019 included HomeBiogas, developer of a household system producing cooking gas from organic waste, and ElectRoad, developer of technology for charging electric vehicles while driving.[23] Their technologies were reported to have reached several dozen countries.[23]

In healthcare, the Ministry of Health developed advanced certification jointly with the SII by adopting common criteria from other ISO standards.[3] This work formed part of a regulatory context in which a 2012 ministry circular required healthcare organizations and associated service providers to comply with ISO 27799.[3] A 2009 resilience framework noted that the SII had defined a management standard for business continuity during crises, citing Dan Landau’s Security Resilience Management – Israeli Standard.[24]

The institution also provided a setting for Hebrew computing standardization.[25] Computing specialist Yehavi Bourvine joined an SII committee while working on the representation and display of Hebrew text in electronic messages; in a 2026 interview, he said Microsoft eventually adopted the standard he wrote.[25]

Import competition and the balance between safety checks and trade barriers have been recurring subjects of debate.[26][27] A 1999 commercial assessment criticized some mandatory local standards as favoring domestic producers despite a declared policy of adopting international standards wherever possible.[26] During debate over a 2015 bill to authorize competing accredited laboratories, the SII defended its checks as protection against unsafe products.[27] Later criticism alleged domestic-manufacturer influence over standards committees, citing a tea-bag staple requirement and a ketchup standard that required Heinz ketchup to be labeled tomato dip; the ketchup standard was subsequently canceled.[20]

The August 2020–January 2021 reform audit found that private laboratories performed about 1.1% of imported-goods tests and covered 2% of standards opened to competition.[13] Constraints included narrower private-laboratory coverage, recognition costs, and an unfinished final phase of opening standards to competition.[13] Interviews suggesting better service and lower prices where laboratories competed were explicitly nonrepresentative and statistically invalid.[13] Of 266 standards subject to international-alignment review, 115 remained under consideration after the deadline because approval of national modifications was disputed; some modifications involved health or safety questions requiring ministerial approval.[13]

Financial scrutiny in 2020 found improved ratios during 2016–2018 but negative net investment in fixed assets, raising concerns about aging laboratory equipment.[1] Historical findings included approximately NIS 110 million in prepaid income for services not yet performed in 2018 and accumulated construction and land department losses of NIS 270 million.[1] A separate governance review found gaps in online publication of financial statements, executive-committee minutes, and work-plan implementation, and identified a potential institutional conflict in the commissioner’s overlapping oversight and SII executive roles.[28]

EU-related reforms prompted concerns from U.S. industry stakeholders about additional compliance costs for exporters not already meeting European requirements or additional Israeli labeling and kosher-certification requirements.[4] Early 2025 reporting found testing-cost savings among interviewed importers without corresponding consumer price reductions, while noting shipping costs and other pricing factors.[29]