Ports Ordinance [New Version], 5731-1971

In this Ordinance —

"means of transport" — a vehicle, vessel, aircraft or animal used for the carriage of goods;

"owner", in relation to goods — includes a holder, importer, exporter, consignee, agent, person having a beneficial interest in, or control over, or right of dealing with, goods, and any person claiming to be an owner as aforesaid, but excludes a port officer or customs officer acting in their official capacity;

"Ports Superintendent" — a person appointed by the Minister to perform the functions of the Ports Superintendent;

"vessel" — a ship, boat, lighter or other craft of any description whatsoever;

"foreign vessel" — a vessel not registered in the Israeli Register within the meaning of the Shipping (Vessels) Law, 5720-1960;

"port manager" — a person appointed by the Minister, by notice in Reshumot (Official Gazette), to be a port manager; and in relation to the port of Ashkelon, if the operating entity is a company controlled by the State — an employee of the operating entity appointed by the Minister as aforesaid; for the purposes of this definition —

"operating entity" — as defined in the Infrastructure for the Transportation and Storage of Oil by an Operating Entity Law, 5777-2017;

"control" — as defined in the Banking (Licensing) Law, 5741-1981;

"transit shed or stevedoring area" — a place within the area of a port designated by the Ports Superintendent for the storage or deposit of goods pending their clearance or other lawful disposition, or a place as aforesaid under his control for that purpose;

"port" — one of the ports listed in the Schedule or a port added thereto pursuant to section 2;

"customs agent" — as defined in section 1 of the Customs Agents Law, 5725-1964;

"authorised officer" — a port officer who is entitled or required to demand that the matter in question be done or to do it himself, including the port manager;

"port officer" — a person subject to the authority of the Ports Superintendent or of a person authorised pursuant to sections 4 or 5, excluding a labourer;

"the Minister" — the Minister of Transport.

The Minister may by Order declare that a particular place in Israel shall be a port for the purposes of this Ordinance or any other enactment and determine the boundaries of the port, the places within the port that shall serve as quays and warehouses for the loading, unloading and storage of goods, and the boundaries and areas of the quays and warehouses.

The Ports Superintendent is responsible for the supervision of ports, and may for that purpose give directions to a port manager regarding the manner of exercising his powers under this Ordinance, and may also assume for himself any power vested in a port manager under this Ordinance.

In any instrument under sections 4 or 5 authorising a person to collect a prescribed payment, the Ports Superintendent may, with the approval of the Minister, notwithstanding anything in this Ordinance or in any enactment, direct that the person collecting the payments by virtue of the authorisation shall be entitled to retain all or part of them for himself, or that all or part of them shall be dealt with in any other manner specified in the instrument of authorisation; an approval of the Minister under this section may be given with retrospective effect.

A person authorised under sections 4 or 5 shall permanently display a copy of the instrument of authorisation in the form, place and condition directed by the port manager.

Nothing in this Ordinance shall derogate from any power vested in the Director of the Customs and Excise Division or in any other customs officer under the Customs Ordinance or under any other law.

No person shall use a vessel within the area of a port or navigate it from port to port, or on the sea, a lake or an inland river, for the transfer of persons or goods to or from a vessel, for reward, or for any other service, unless the vessel holds a licence from the port manager of its port of registration.

The Minister may by Regulations —

No person shall act as a pilot unless he has obtained a licence therefor from the Minister.

Goods shall not be delivered from the custody of the port manager unless both of the following have been done:

A port manager may treat as the owner of the goods or as his agent the person whose name is stated in the delivery order, issued by the master of a vessel or his agent or any other carrier, which states that he is the person to whom or to whose order the goods carried in the vessel or other means of transport are to be delivered.

A port manager may require the owner of the goods described in the delivery order or his agent to prove, by affidavit or by production of documents, that the ownership of the goods is as claimed and that their description is correct, and may refuse to deliver the goods until such proof has been furnished as aforesaid.

An owner of goods may fulfil the requirements of this Ordinance or Regulations made thereunder through his duly authorised agent; such an agent shall be a person working solely for the owner of the goods or a customs agent.

A port officer may require an agent to produce the instrument of authority of the principal on whose behalf he purports to act, and if the instrument of authority is not produced, the port officer may refuse to recognise his agency.

Where goods have come into the custody of the port manager and their entries have been passed under the Customs Ordinance, and they have not been claimed or removed by their owner within seven days of the date of passing of the entries, or within an additional period permitted by the port manager, the port manager may sell them.

The sale of goods under sections 21 and 22 shall be conducted in the prescribed manner and the proceeds of sale shall be dealt with as prescribed.

The port manager may, if satisfied that it is necessary in order to prevent excessive congestion of traffic in the port, remove from the port any merchandise, packages, animals, passenger baggage or other cargo that the owner has not removed within the time fixed by the port manager, and hold them at the owner's expense in a place he deems suitable for that purpose, provided that prior notice has been given to the owner to remove them as aforesaid; if the owner or his address were not known to the port manager, he shall publish the notice in such manner as appears to him appropriate.

"vessel", in this Chapter — includes the hull, cargo, equipment, stores and ballast of a vessel and any thing or collection of things forming part thereof.

Where the owner of a vessel has not complied with a demand under section 27, or the Ports Superintendent considers it necessary or expedient to raise, remove or destroy the vessel, or to commence any of those operations, before the expiry of the time specified in the demand, the Ports Superintendent may take possession of the vessel and raise, remove or destroy it; however, if the owner of the vessel or his address were not known to him and a demand was published in Reshumot (Official Gazette) as referred to in section 27(b), the Ports Superintendent shall not be entitled to deal with the vessel as aforesaid before the expiry of two months from the date of publication of the demand.

Pending the raising, removal or destruction of the vessel, the Ports Superintendent may, at the owner's expense, illuminate the vessel, mark it with buoys and take any necessary action to prevent or reduce any danger associated with the presence of the vessel in that place.

Where the Ports Superintendent has exercised the powers vested in him under sections 27 to 29, in whole or in part, he is entitled to recover from the owner of the vessel the expenses incurred in the exercise of his powers, or to sell the vessel in such manner as appears to him appropriate; if the proceeds of sale exceed the expenses, he shall hold the surplus as trustee for the benefit of the person entitled thereto; if the expenses exceed the proceeds of sale, the Ports Superintendent is entitled to recover the difference from the owner of the vessel.

In any of the circumstances referred to in section 28, the Ports Superintendent may sell the vessel in its sunken or stranded or abandoned condition, whether in consideration of its being raised or removed by the purchaser or for any other consideration or in any other manner; if the proceeds of sale exceed the expenses, they shall be dealt with in accordance with section 30.

Not less than fourteen days before the date of the sale of a vessel under sections 30 or 31, the Ports Superintendent shall publish notice thereof in two Hebrew daily newspapers in Israel; however, in the case of a vessel that to the knowledge of the Ports Superintendent is registered in a foreign state — the notice shall be published in one daily newspaper in that state and in one Hebrew daily newspaper in Israel.

For the removal of doubt it is hereby stated that a vessel sold under sections 30 or 31 shall vest in the purchaser free of any mortgage, charge (security interest) or attachment that encumbered it on the eve of the sale; and after all the expenses incurred by the Ports Superintendent in the exercise of his powers under those sections in relation to that vessel have been deducted from the proceeds of sale, the mortgage, charge (security interest) or attachment shall apply to the surplus of the proceeds of sale.

The provisions of this Chapter are intended to add to, and not to derogate from, the provisions of the Wreck and Salvage Ordinance, the Civil Wrongs Ordinance [New Version] and any other law in force.