Can a person with dual Israeli and foreign nationality who is domiciled abroad choose to apply Israeli law to property in a will made concerning it in Israel?
No! The Inheritance Law of 1965 states very clearly that the law of a testator's country of domicile is to be applied to his inheritance in Israel . This, says, the Supreme Court, is a cognitive instruction, and a testator cannot chose to override it in his will, and have Israeli law apply to his Israeli estate by making a separate will in Israel concerning it. These points were made in November 2004 when the Supreme Court held that a woman domiciled in Holland, who had Israeli and Dutch citizenship, could not by-pass restrictions in Dutch law – which protects the inheritance rights of each child -and make a will in Israel leaving her Israeli estate to only two of her three children. In doing so, it re-instated the original family court decision which held that Dutch law should apply to the estate in Israel , and would not assist the testator in by-passing Dutch law in a probate application. The family court had held that Dutch law must be proved before the application for probate could be heard. In making its decision, the Supreme Court rejected an argument which the District Court had accepted - that the testator's behaviour showed she clearly intended and wished Israeli law to apply to her Israeli property as she had chosen to make a separate will in Hebrew when visiting Israel, regarding her Israeli estate , which she had excluded from the will she made in Holland . It also rejected an argument raised that Dutch law – which protected equal rights for all children in inheritance – contradicted Israeli public regulations, which was a ground for not applying it the case, under the act.
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