Civic Service Law, 5777-2017
חוק שירות אזרחי, תשע"ז-2017
Published: 2017-04-05Consolidated Hebrew text as of 2025-08-06 · Last amended 2025-08-05✓ Amendment status checked against the Knesset legislation record on 2026-09-17
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Chapter VII: Operating Body
Approval of an Operating Body§
63.
(a)The following may submit an application for approval to serve as an operating body –
(1)a public authority;
(2)an association or a public benefit company of at least seven members or shareholders, as the case may be, the majority of whom are not relatives, or a trust the majority of whose trustees are not relatives, that was incorporated in Israel, provided that they exist and operate for a public purpose in a field as referred to in section 65 and that they hold a valid certificate of proper management from the Registrar of Associations or from the Registrar of Trusts, as the case may be; for this purpose, a person who has submitted a certificate that it is a public institution under section 46 of the Income Tax Ordinance [New Version] shall be regarded as if it has met the conditions of this paragraph with respect to incorporation as an association or a public benefit company as aforesaid and with respect to activity for a public purpose in a field as referred to in section 65; in this paragraph, "public benefit company" and "association" – as defined in section 48(a);
(2a)the National Institutions;
(3)another body, provided that in the opinion of the Director all of the following apply to it:
(a)it fulfils a public function;
(b)it is an audited body within the meaning of section 9(1) to (7) of the State Comptroller Law, 5718-1958 [Consolidated Version].
(b)An application for approval as referred to in subsection (a) shall be submitted to the Director, in accordance with provisions that the Minister shall prescribe.
(c)The Director or a person authorised by him or her may grant to a body as referred to in subsection (a) approval as an operating body if he or she has found that the conditions for approval under this Chapter are fulfilled in it; if the Director or a person authorised by him or her has a doubt as to whether the conditions are fulfilled as aforesaid, he or she may consult with the Council on this matter.
(d)The Director or a person authorised by him or her may grant approval as an operating body under this Chapter for a period not exceeding ten years, and may extend the validity of the approval for additional periods not exceeding ten years each.
Grant of Approval as an Operating Body to a Public Authority or a Hospital§
64.
(a)The Director or a person authorised by him or her may grant approval as an operating body to a public authority or to a hospital that is not a government hospital and in which what is stated in section 63(a)(2) or (3) is fulfilled, in accordance with rules that the Director shall direct, with the consent of the Civil Service Commissioner.
(b)Approval as an operating body as referred to in subsection (a) and approval of the roles in which volunteers may be operated at the operating body shall be granted after receiving the recommendation of a joint committee of the Authority and the Civil Service Commission, and with respect to an operating body that is a local authority – a joint committee of the Authority and the Ministry of the Interior.
(c)The Director shall publish on the website of the Authority the roles that he or she approved as referred to in subsection (b), provided that with respect to a public authority listed in the definition of "defence establishment" in section 31(i), he or she may refrain from publishing the roles as aforesaid.
Grant of Approval as an Operating Body to a Person who is Not a Public Authority§
65.
(a)The Director or a person authorised by him or her may grant approval as an operating body to a body as referred to in subsection 63(a)(2), (2a) or (3), other than a hospital that is not a government hospital, if he or she has found that all of the following apply to it:
(1)a significant part of its activity is in one or more of the occupations set out in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) below and the activity to be performed at it by the volunteers shall be in a field from the fields set out in respect of each occupation, as specified by the body in its application, and in activities that the Minister shall prescribe for each field, in consultation with the Council and with the Minister responsible for the field concerned and with the approval of the Committee:
(a)engagement in the provision of direct service or direct care to the population in Israel, including to residents of Israel in the region as defined in section 378(a) of the National Insurance Law, in the following fields:
(1)education;
(2)health;
(3)welfare;
(4)absorption of immigration and its encouragement;
(b)engagement in the improvement of the quality of life or the safety of the general population in Israel, including residents of Israel in the region as defined in section 378(a) of the National Insurance Law, in the following fields:
(1)culture;
(2)environmental protection and care for animals;
(3)road safety;
(4)internal security;
(5)technology concerning computer software or computer hardware, for the purpose of improving the direct service, direct care or interface with recipients of the service or care, in the fields set out in sub-paragraph (a), or for the purpose of supporting professional activity in the fields set out in that sub-paragraph, all provided that the owner of the rights in the software or hardware shall enable every Israeli citizen or resident of Israel to use the software or hardware as aforesaid without payment;
(6)agriculture;
(2)it was active in the occupation and field for which it requested the approval for at least two years prior to the submission of the application;
(3)it has undertaken that it complies with the provisions of the law applicable to it in accordance with the occupation, field and activity in which it operates;
(4)its aims or actions do not constitute negation of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, support for armed struggle or an act of terror by an enemy or a terrorist organisation against the State of Israel, or incitement to racism, violence or terror;
(5)it is not a political party as defined in section 34(d)(1);
(6)it has declared that it does not engage and will not engage in activity that constitutes electioneering or activity of a party-political nature;
(7)it is not a recognised body.
(b)The Minister, with the approval of the Committee, may prescribe additional conditions for the approval of an operating body, and also rules regarding conditions to be prescribed in such approval, including in the matters listed below, for the purpose of ensuring the performance of the service in an optimal manner and safeguarding the welfare of those performing national service or community volunteering, and having regard, among other things, to the type of the operating body, its fields of activity, and the provisions of law applicable to it in accordance with its fields of activity:
(1)the ratio between the scope of its activity in the occupation and field as referred to in subsection (a) for which it requested the approval, and the total activity of the operating body and the nature of its other activity;
(2)the number of persons operating in the operating body, including those employed therein and, if it provides a service – also the number of recipients of service from it;
(3)the remuneration of office holders in the operating body, having regard to its characteristics, including its financial turnover, and if it provides a service – also the number of recipients of service from it;
(4)the number of volunteers that an operating body may operate, including having regard to the scope of its activity and its distribution and the population served by it;
(5)the characteristics of the activity of an operating body, the scope of the population served by it or receiving service from it, the supervision that exists over the activity and the compliance of the body with other conditions applicable to bodies of its type.
(c)Without derogating from the provisions of subsection (b) and section 66, the Minister, in consultation with the Council, may prescribe tests and criteria for the approval or limitation of positions and types of positions for the operation of volunteers in operating bodies as referred to in this section, if he or she has found that this is required for the benefit of the community, society or the State, and having regard to the national order of priorities as referred to in section 24.
(d)The Minister may, by Order, add additional fields to the fields listed in subsection (a)(1), provided that they fall within the occupations in sub-paragraphs (a) or (b) of that subsection, as the case may be; an Order under this subsection requires consultation with the Council and with the Minister responsible for the field concerned and the approval of the Committee.
Additional Conditions for the Activity of an Operating Body§
66.
If the Director has found that there is a need to direct additional conditions for the activity of an operating body for the purpose of ensuring the performance of the service in an optimal manner and for the purpose of ensuring the welfare of the volunteers, he or she may, at any time, stipulate conditions as aforesaid, and direct their fulfilment during all or part of the period of validity of the approval, and may also, if he or she has found that this is required due to a change of circumstances, remove or amend those conditions.
Duty of an Operating Body to Give Notice of Change of Details§
67.
(a)An operating body shall notify the Director, in writing, of any change that has occurred in a detail from among the details it provided under this Chapter, within 30 days from the day on which it became aware of the change, and shall attach the relevant documents.
(b)Without derogating from the provisions of subsection (a), an operating body shall provide the Authority, once every five years, with a declaration under the Evidence Ordinance [New Version], 5731-1971, in the form that the Director shall direct, to the effect that no material changes have occurred in the details that it provided in the application for approval, unless it reported them at the time referred to in subsection (a).
Revocation or Suspension of Approval as an Operating Body§
68.
(a)The Director may revoke or suspend the approval of an operating body, after affording the operating body an opportunity to state its arguments, if he or she has found that one of the following has occurred:
(1)the operating body has violated a provision of the provisions under this Law;
(2)a condition from among the conditions for the grant of approval under this Chapter or under section 19(b), as the case may be, has ceased to be fulfilled in the operating body; the Director may consult with the Council on this matter;
(3)the operating body has violated a condition from among the additional conditions that the Director directed under section 66;
(4)the operating body has dismissed one of its employees in order to operate a volunteer in his or her place, contrary to the provisions of section 6(b); for this purpose, "its employees" – including a person employed by it through a service contractor as defined in section 20a of the Work and Rest Hours Law, 5711-1951;
(5)the approval was granted on the basis of false or incorrect information.
(b)The Director shall not revoke an approval or suspend it under the provisions of paragraphs (1) to (3) of subsection (a), unless he or she has demanded that the operating body fulfil the condition or provision that was violated or ceased to be fulfilled, as referred to in that subsection, in the manner and within the period that he or she directed, and the operating body has not done so; the provisions of this subsection shall not apply if it is not possible to fulfil the condition or provision that was violated or ceased to be fulfilled, or if the harm that is liable to be caused to volunteers from not revoking or suspending the approval immediately exceeds the harm that will be caused to the operating body from an immediate decision on revocation or suspension of the approval.
(c)An operating body that intends to cease its activities or the activities of volunteers within its framework shall give written notice thereof to the Director and to the recognised body that referred volunteers to it, at least one month in advance prior to the planned date of cessation of activities.
Publication of a List of Operating Bodies§
69.
The Director shall publish in Reshumot (Official Gazette) and on the website of the Authority, once a year during the month of December, the list of operating bodies in the year preceding the date of publication, in accordance with the field of service, and the number of volunteers operated by each operating body in that year.
Functions and Duties of an Operating Body§
70.
The following are the functions and duties of an operating body:
(1)to operate volunteers at it and to fulfil its obligations towards them in accordance with the provisions of this Law and in accordance with the undertaking it provided to a recognised body under section 56(3), and to ensure the making of the payments incumbent upon it under the provisions of this Law in accordance with the tariff;
(2)to provide specialised training to volunteers as referred to in section 14, insofar as such training is required by them for the purpose of fulfilling their role;
(3)to report from time to time to the recognised body that referred volunteers to it on any matter connected to their functioning and welfare;
(4)to provide the Authority with any information that has come to its knowledge that is connected to a volunteer or to the activities of a recognised body, being exceptional and significant information, which it has reasonable grounds to believe is required by the Authority for the purpose of fulfilling its functions, immediately after the information has come to its knowledge;
(5)to report to the Authority, at its request, on any additional matter connected to its activities that relates to the provisions of this Law.
Financing of Volunteer Positions by a Public Authority§
71.
(a)
(1)A public authority listed in paragraph (1) of the definition of "public authority" (in this section – a government ministry) may finance, on behalf of an operating body, in whole or in part, a position for the operation of a volunteer;
(2)An operating body shall not receive financing for a position for the operation of the same volunteer from more than one government ministry;
(3)A government ministry shall notify the Authority by 1 January of each year of the number of positions it requests to finance as referred to in paragraph (1) in the following year, and of their designation; the financing of positions shall only be carried out in accordance with the approval of the Authority under section 23(1); the provision of this paragraph shall not apply with respect to positions financed by the Authority.
(b)A government ministry, with the consent of the Attorney General, shall prescribe equitable criteria for the financing of positions for the operation of volunteers as referred to in subsection (a).
(c)
(1)Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b), the financing of positions for the operation of volunteers by a government ministry for an operating body as detailed below does not require the prescription of criteria as referred to in subsection (b), but shall be carried out in accordance with criteria and rules that the Minister heading the ministry shall prescribe:
(a)an operating body that is an agency of that government ministry;
(b)an operating body that is a non-formal educational institution funded by the Ministry of Education under law and subject to its supervision;
(c)an operating body that is a local authority;
(2)Criteria and rules to be prescribed as referred to in paragraph (1) with respect to operating bodies that are local authorities may include different provisions for different authorities, including different rates of financing, having regard, among other things, to the socio-economic cluster to which they are assigned; for this purpose, "socio-economic cluster" – the characterisation and classification of local authorities according to the socio-economic level of the population in accordance with the publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics.
(d)Criteria and rules as referred to in subsections (b) and (c) shall be published on the website of the government ministry.
(e)The Minister, in consultation with the Attorney General, shall prescribe a procedure under which applications by operating bodies for the receipt of financing for a position for the operation of a volunteer under this section shall be submitted and considered.
(f)The provisions of subsections (b) to (e) shall not apply with respect to the financing of positions intended for the operation of volunteers who are persons with disabilities, at-risk youth, new immigrants, members of the Arab, Druze and Circassian population or persons serving under section 3(b); in this subsection, "new immigrant" – a person in respect of whom fewer than five years have elapsed from the day on which an immigrant visa or immigrant certificate was issued to him or her under the Law of Return, 5710-1950, or a certificate issued by the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration to a person found to be entitled to assistance as an immigrant under the procedures of the Ministry.
(g)The financing of a position for the operation of a volunteer as referred to in subsection (a) in a body the majority of whose financing comes from donations from a foreign political entity requires the approval of the Minister, and the Minister may make such approval subject to conditions; for this purpose, "foreign political entity" – as defined in section 36a(a) of the Associations Law, 5740-1980.
Status of the State§
72.
The State shall have, for the purposes of this Law, the same status as any other operating body.
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