Probation in Israel of a foreign will

Section 136 of the Law of Inheritance of 1965, provides that Israeli courts have jurisdiction over the estate of any person who resided in Israel at time of death or who had assets in Israel.

When a person dies abroad, having property in Israel, and that property was

provided for in his will, which was probated abroad, his heirs will not be able to realize the assets in Israel according to that foreign probation process. Such heirs will have to probate the will according to Israeli law in order to be able to realize the assets bequeathed to them.

The Law of Inheritance contains a specific provision (Section 39) providing that any will, including such that was made abroad, must be probated in Israel  in order to validate the transfer of the assets under the will.

A Decree of Probation, which is the outcome of the probation process in Israel, constitutes essentially a court ruling declaring the distribution of the estate to the heirs of the deceased according to a will, and therefore could have been, in theory, enforced like any other foreign judgment according to the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Law of 1958, which is the Israeli procedure to grant full faith and credit to a judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction outside Israel,   but the provisions of section 39 of the Law of succession rule out the use of that route.

Consequently, although already probated in a foreign country, the only way to enforce the will in Israel is to go through the procedure prescribed by section 39 of the Law, as if the will was made in Israel. This interpretation of the Law was also adopted by the Israeli Supreme Court (CF 970/93 Attorney General v. Iris Lake).

However, what procedural rules shall govern where a deceased's last residence was outside the state of Israel, will also made outside Israel but contains provisions regarding assets in Israel? The general principal choosing the applicable procedure provide that venue's procedural rules govern the process at hand, and they will apply in such case. Accordingly, this situation will result in probation of that will in Israel according to the procedural law applicable in Israel, but giving effect to the material law applicable to that will (which, many times, will be foreign law).  In these cases, applicants have to prove the applicable law to the court by means of expert's opinion.  Absent such an expert's opinion the court may use the presumption of "similarity of laws" and will apply the Israeli laws to the will. The outcome may not always be favorable to the heirs… 

Probation of the estate of a foreign citizen and resident who died intestate and left assets in Israel

Section 136 of the Israeli Inheritance Law, provides that Israeli courts have jurisdiction in the estate of any person who, at the time of death, either lived, or had assets, in Israel.
It should be noted that when the last residence of the deceased was in Israel, or having assets in Israel at time of deaths, actually grants Israeli court competent jurisdiction over any assets of the deceased wherever they may be located, but the legal reality show that Israeli court may not be able to effectively rule or give instructions and orders applying to assets located outside Israel. In any case, the court may use its discretion to decide in appropriate cases whether and to what extent to exercise the authority vested in it, and may check whether it is appropriate discussing the and rendering decision regarding assets located outside Israel.

Israeli case law has, over time, set certain guide lines that are aimed to clarify the scope of Israeli court's authority to discuss inheritance cases including those that involve interest and assets outside of Israel. The Court may choose to exercise its authority to discuss certain matters of inheritance if the court decides it appropriate to discuss them in Israel and may choose not do so, and therefore these situations must be examined on a case by case basis according to the criteria outlined in case law to determine the right process to choose when dealing with such an estate.