In Israel, to carry out a will after the testator’s death, you must submit an application for a probate order to the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or to the rabbinical court.
This procedure verifies that the will is indeed valid and proper, as opposed to a will that is not, for any reason recognized by law: because it was forged, because it was revoked (including by a later will), because it was made unlawfully, and so on. Without a probate order the will has no legal force, and nothing can be done with it to realize it and divide the testator’s property according to its provisions.
Within the probate application process it is also possible to file a challenge to the will. More precisely, the validity of the will can be contested through a proceeding known as an “objection to the will,” as explained below.
Who is entitled to object to a will, and when ?
Section 67 of the Inheritance Law provides that “Where an application has been submitted for an inheritance order or a probate order, the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs shall publish notice of it and shall set an appropriate period, of not less than two weeks, for submitting objections; anyone interested in the matter may submit an objection to the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs within the period set, as long as the order has not been issued.”
This means that, in principle, anyone who wishes to challenge the validity of the will may file an objection, and must generally do so within two weeks of the date the notice of the probate application is published.
“Anyone interested” means anyone who can show a legitimate interest in the deceased’s estate, including heirs at law, creditors of the deceased or of the deceased’s heirs, an estate administrator, and others.
The case law holds that this covers anyone who may actually benefit from the deceased’s estate, directly or indirectly, such as an heir at law who was left out entirely of the will now submitted for probate, or whose share under it is smaller than his share as an heir at law, or a beneficiary under another will of the same deceased. The courts have further held that it means someone with a current, objective financial interest in the estate, as opposed to a future interest, such as the child of a potential heir who merely expects one day to inherit that heir’s estate, once the latter inherits from the testator.
“Anyone interested” also extends, however, to people whose right in the estate would only arise, if at all, should the probate order be refused: a conditional heir (even where it is doubtful the condition will be fulfilled), an heir who takes after another heir, someone who has renounced his share of the estate, those in whose favor a share was renounced, parties to transactions in inheritance rights, and more.
How do you object to a will procedurally ?
When an application for a probate order is filed with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or the rabbinical court, the Registrar or the court publishes a notice in the press and in the official gazette, inviting anyone interested to file an objection to the application.
At this stage, anyone entitled to object must usually do so within 14 days of the date the notice is published. In special cases an extension can be requested.
Filing an objection carries a fee. As of 2026 it stands at 1,075 NIS. The fee can be paid online through the government payment service, or with payment vouchers available at the public reception desks of the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs and payable at the Postal Bank.
The objection must be filed together with the following documents: an affidavit verifying the facts stated in the objection, signed by the objector and attested by an attorney; a form for opening proceedings; a power of attorney on the objector’s behalf if he is represented by an attorney; and a receipt for payment of the fee.
How do you challenge a will on the merits ?
To challenge a will on the merits, the objection must state the grounds on which it relies.
The grounds for objection are customarily divided into two types: technical grounds and substantive grounds.
The technical grounds for objection
The technical grounds deal with cases where the will fails to meet the formal conditions the Inheritance Law sets for it to be validly made.
In general, the Inheritance Law recognizes four types of will: a will made before witnesses, a handwritten will, a will made before an authority, and an oral will (a “deathbed will”).
Each of these four types has its own formal conditions that must be satisfied for a will of that type to be made.
For example, a will made before witnesses is one drawn up in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of two adult, competent witnesses, who confirm by their signatures on the will that the testator declared it to be his will and signed it before them. A handwritten will is one the testator wrote entirely in his own hand, bearing a date in his own handwriting and his signature.
So if, for example, a handwritten will bears no date, or a witnessed will was made before minors, these wills carry technical defects and can be challenged on that basis.
Even where a will has a technical defect, it can still be upheld in certain cases under Section 25 of the Inheritance Law, which authorizes the court to validate a will with a technical defect provided two conditions are met: the defect does not go to the core elements of that type of will, and there is no doubt that the will expresses the true wishes of the deceased.
The substantive grounds for objection
The substantive grounds deal with material defects in the will’s validity, such as when the deceased was not in a fit mental state to make the will and understand its meaning and content, or made it not of his own free will but under improper and unfair influence, and the like.
These include, among others, cases where the deceased suffered from dementia and was not lucid; where the deceased did not command the language in which the will was drawn up and could not read it at all; or where the deceased made the will under the undue influence of a family member who pressured him, or exploited his dependence, so that the will would favor that family member and exclude the deceased’s other heirs at law, and the like.
How is the hearing on an objection to a will conducted ?
If the objection was filed with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs, the Registrar transfers the case to the Family Court.
If the objection was filed with the rabbinical court, the case is heard before that rabbinical court.
The person who applied for the probate order is designated the “plaintiff” in the case.
The person who filed the objection to the will is designated the “defendant” in the case.
The burden of proving that the will is invalid rests on the defendant, that is, the person who filed the objection, and he must present weighty evidence to meet it.
After hearing the parties’ arguments and the testimony on their behalf, the parties submit their summations, and the court hands down a ruling accepting or rejecting the objection.
If the objection is accepted, the court may invalidate the will, in whole or in part.
If the objection is rejected, the court orders the issuance of a probate order.
