A Revolution in the World of Electronic Signatures in Israel

The third amendment to the Israeli Electronic Signature Law has entered into effect and will have a significant impact on how electronic signatures can be used in Israel. According to the amendment, any electronic signature, even a simple one, can potentially comply with any legal requirements for a signature – "provided that the purposes underlying the signature requirement found in the law, are achieved with sufficient certainty under the circumstances". 

Prior to the amendment, the Electronic Signature Law prescribed that where a signature is required by law it may only be fulfilled by means of a technologically and regulatorily sophisticated electronic signature. 

The new amendment also drastically reduces the list of documents that cannot, as a matter of law, be signed electronically. These are now mainly a holographic (handwritten) will. In addition, the new amendment states that where a contracting party has greater influence on determining the electronic signing method used to execute the contract, that party bears the burden of proving that the counter-party has in fact signed the contract

Click here to read the legislative amendment (in Hebrew).