Quick Answer: When a commercial dispute goes to arbitration in Israel, urgent interim measures — including asset freezes, injunctions, and preservation orders — are available on two tracks simultaneously. Israeli courts retain the power to grant protective orders even where a binding arbitration agreement exists, and the arbitral tribunal itself may order interim relief depending on the institutional rules in play. If you need to act before a tribunal is even formed, emergency arbitration procedures can produce a binding order within days. This guide explains how both tracks work for foreign parties.

When a commercial relationship breaks down — when an Israeli business partner is about to transfer assets offshore, when confidential information is about to be published, or when a construction project is being halted in breach of contract — waiting months or years for a final arbitral award is simply not viable. The damage will be done long before any tribunal delivers its decision.

Interim measures in arbitration exist precisely for these situations. For foreign nationals and international businesses with disputes involving Israeli counterparties, understanding how to obtain urgent protective relief in Israel can mean the difference between preserving your position and arriving at a hearing with nothing left to recover. This guide explains the legal framework, the practical steps, and the important changes introduced by Israel's updated arbitration legislation.

1. What Are Interim Measures in Arbitration?

Interim measures (sometimes called provisional measures or interim relief) are temporary orders designed to preserve the status quo, protect assets, or prevent irreparable harm while the main arbitral process unfolds. They are not final decisions on the merits of the dispute — their purpose is to make sure that a future arbitral award remains meaningful and enforceable.

The classic problem interim measures solve is asset dissipation. Without a protective order, a losing party who knows an award is coming can simply move money offshore, transfer assets to related companies, or encumber property beyond recovery. By the time the claimant holds a final award, there is nothing to enforce it against. An interim asset freeze closes that window.

In Israeli legal practice, interim measures in the arbitration context can include:

  • Asset freezes — preventing a party from moving, selling, pledging, or otherwise dealing with identified assets pending the award
  • Preservation orders — requiring that specific property, documents, or evidence be kept intact and not destroyed
  • Injunctions against specified conduct — ordering a party to stop (or continue) doing something, such as halting a construction breach or restraining disclosure of confidential information
  • Appointment of a receiver or administrator — placing a disputed asset or business under neutral management during the proceedings
  • Anti-suit injunctions — preventing a party from initiating or continuing court proceedings in another jurisdiction in breach of the arbitration agreement

Each of these measures can be ordered by an Israeli court, by the arbitral tribunal (subject to the applicable rules), or sometimes by both in parallel. Understanding which route is fastest and most effective in your specific situation is the first strategic question to resolve with your Israeli counsel.

2. Court vs. Tribunal Authority: Who Can Grant Interim Relief?

One of the most important things a foreign party should understand is that signing an arbitration agreement does not surrender your right to seek urgent court protection in Israel. The two tracks — court and tribunal — operate in parallel, not in competition.

Israeli Court Jurisdiction

Israeli courts have long-established authority to grant interim measures in support of arbitral proceedings. The Israeli Arbitration Law expressly preserves court jurisdiction for this purpose: the existence of a valid arbitration clause does not divest the court of its power to order urgent protective measures. This is consistent with the approach taken in most modern arbitration jurisdictions and reflects the practical reality that courts can act far more quickly than a tribunal that is still being constituted.

To obtain an interim order from an Israeli court in support of arbitration, you file an urgent application with the competent District Court. The court applies essentially the same test it would for any interim injunction in civil litigation:

  • A credible claim on the merits (you do not need to prove your case, but you must demonstrate it is arguable)
  • A real risk of irreparable harm if the measure is not granted
  • The balance of convenience favors granting the measure
  • It is just and equitable to do so in the circumstances

Courts can and do act ex parte — meaning without prior notice to the other side — where urgency and the risk of asset dissipation require it. In such cases, the respondent is typically given an early opportunity to challenge the order at a follow-up hearing. The applicant will generally be required to give an undertaking in damages: if the interim measure is later found to have been wrongly obtained, you may be required to compensate the other party for losses caused by it.

Arbitral Tribunal Jurisdiction

Whether the arbitral tribunal itself can order interim measures depends on three factors: the arbitration agreement, the institutional rules chosen by the parties, and the applicable law governing the arbitration.

Under Israel's older arbitration framework (the 1968 Arbitration Law), tribunals sitting in Israel did not automatically have power to grant interim measures — this power had to be expressly conferred on the tribunal in the parties' agreement. In practice, this meant that most interim relief in Israel was historically sought from courts rather than tribunals.

This picture has changed significantly. If the parties have chosen institutional arbitration rules from bodies such as the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, or the Israel Centre for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), those rules will typically grant the tribunal express power to order interim measures. In that case, a party can apply directly to the tribunal for protective relief once it is constituted. The tribunal's order is binding on the parties and, depending on the circumstances, may be enforced by the Israeli courts if a party fails to comply.

3. Types of Interim Relief and When to Use Each

Choosing the right type of measure for your situation matters. Courts and tribunals have different strengths, and the nature of the risk you face should dictate your approach.

Asset Freeze (Akirat Kinyan / Attachment Order)

This is the most commonly sought interim measure in commercial arbitration. An Israeli court can issue an attachment order (*ikul nechasim*) preventing the respondent from dealing with specified bank accounts, real estate, shares, or other assets. The attachment is registered with the relevant authority — bank, land registry, company register — and effectively locks the asset in place. For foreign parties with counterparties who hold Israeli real estate or bank accounts, this is often the most powerful tool available.

Injunction Against Conduct

Where the harm is not financial but behavioral — a party breaching a non-compete, disclosing trade secrets, or interfering with a project — an injunction ordering them to stop (or resume) the conduct may be more appropriate than an asset freeze. Israeli courts are experienced in granting such orders on an urgent basis where the irreversibility threshold is met.

Evidence Preservation

Where there is a risk that documents, electronic records, or physical items will be destroyed or altered, a preservation order can be sought. This is particularly relevant in commercial disputes involving accounting records, software code, or internal communications. Courts can appoint an independent expert to secure electronic evidence where the risk of tampering is high.

Appointment of a Receiver

In disputes involving jointly owned businesses, real estate partnerships, or company shareholdings, a court can appoint a receiver or interim manager to take control of the disputed asset and operate it on a neutral basis while the arbitration proceeds. This prevents either party from extracting value or making irreversible decisions pending the award.

4. How to Apply for Interim Measures in Israeli Arbitration

For a foreign party seeking interim relief from an Israeli court in support of arbitration, the process is as follows.

Step 1: Choose the competent court

Urgent applications for interim measures in support of commercial arbitration are typically filed with the Israeli District Court in the relevant district (usually Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for most commercial disputes). Your Israeli attorney will identify the correct venue based on where the respondent is located, where the assets are situated, or where the arbitral seat is.

Step 2: Prepare the application

The application must include:

  • A sworn affidavit (*tatzhart*) from you or an authorized representative, setting out the factual background, the nature of the dispute, the arbitration agreement, and the urgent threat
  • Copies of the arbitration agreement and any relevant contract
  • Evidence of the specific risk — for an asset freeze, this means evidence that the respondent is in financial difficulty, is actively transferring assets, or has a history of such behavior; courts do not grant freezes speculatively
  • A draft of the proposed order
  • An undertaking in damages signed by the applicant

Step 3: File and request an urgent hearing

In genuinely urgent cases, Israeli courts can hold a hearing and issue an order within 24 to 72 hours of filing. For ex parte applications, the order may be issued the same day. Filing must be done through an Israeli-licensed attorney — foreign lawyers cannot appear directly in Israeli courts.

Step 4: Serve and register the order

Once granted, the order must be served on the respondent and, where relevant, registered with the appropriate authority (bank, land registry, etc.). Your attorney handles this and the registrations are immediate upon court confirmation.

Step 5: Comply with any conditions imposed by the court

Courts sometimes require a bank guarantee or cash deposit from the applicant as security for the undertaking in damages. Be prepared to provide this promptly — failure to do so within the court's deadline can result in the order being lifted.

Step 6: Prepare for the contradictory hearing

If the order was granted ex parte, the respondent will be given an opportunity to challenge it, typically within days to weeks. Your legal team must be ready to support the measure at that hearing with fuller argument and evidence.

A Swiss-based real estate fund discovered that its Israeli joint venture partner had begun transferring title to three residential units in Jerusalem — assets that formed the subject of a NIS 8 million arbitration dispute pending before the ICCA — into a subsidiary incorporated two weeks after the arbitration was filed. The fund's Israeli attorney filed an urgent application to the Jerusalem District Court on a Friday afternoon, attaching the ICCA arbitration agreement and a title search from the Israel Land Registry showing the recent transfers. The court issued an ex parte asset attachment order covering the remaining five units before close of business the same day. At the contradictory hearing ten days later, the Israeli partner challenged the order; the court maintained it in full, citing the pattern of transfers as evidence of dissipation risk. The ICCA award, issued eleven months later, was satisfied in full against the attached assets. The lesson: parallel court and tribunal applications are not redundant — they are the only complete strategy when an Israeli counterparty begins moving assets after an arbitration is filed.

5. Emergency Arbitration: Urgent Relief Before the Tribunal Is Formed

A common frustration in arbitration is the time it takes to constitute the tribunal. Even in expedited cases, appointing arbitrators, establishing procedures, and holding an initial hearing can take weeks or months. For parties who need relief immediately — before the main tribunal even exists — emergency arbitration procedures offer a specific mechanism.

What Is Emergency Arbitration?

Emergency arbitration is a procedural feature offered by most major arbitral institutions that allows a party to apply for an emergency arbitrator — a single, neutral decision-maker appointed specifically to deal with the urgent application — before the main tribunal is constituted. The emergency arbitrator's mandate is limited: they can only deal with the urgent interim application and cannot decide the merits of the underlying dispute.

Availability

Emergency arbitration is available only if the parties' arbitration clause incorporates institutional rules that include this mechanism. The major institutions offering emergency arbitrator procedures include:

  • ICC (International Chamber of Commerce)
  • LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration)
  • SIAC (Singapore International Arbitration Centre)
  • AAA/ICDR (American Arbitration Association / International Centre for Dispute Resolution)
  • ICCA (Israel Centre for Commercial Arbitration) — check the specific version of the rules your agreement incorporates

If your agreement specifies ad hoc arbitration — for example, under UNCITRAL rules without institutional support — there is no emergency arbitrator mechanism available, and you must rely on the courts for urgent relief.

The Timeline

Under most institutional rules, once an emergency arbitration application is filed:

  • An emergency arbitrator is appointed within 1–3 business days
  • The arbitrator sets a schedule for submissions and, if necessary, a hearing
  • A decision is typically issued within 15 days of appointment (though some rules allow up to 30 days)

Binding Force and Enforcement

Emergency arbitrators' orders are binding on the parties as a matter of contract — compliance is an obligation under the arbitration agreement. However, enforcement in Israel requires the assistance of the Israeli courts if the respondent refuses to comply voluntarily. Israeli courts have recognized and enforced emergency arbitrator orders where the underlying institutional rules are well-established, though this area of law continues to develop. Seeking parallel court protection is often advisable as a backup, even where emergency arbitration is available.

Costs

Emergency arbitration carries its own fees, paid to the institution and the emergency arbitrator. ICC emergency arbitration, for example, requires a filing fee of approximately USD 10,000 plus the arbitrator's fees. Budget for this as part of your dispute strategy.

6. The 2024 Israeli Arbitration Law: What Changed

Israel's arbitration law underwent significant modernization with the adoption of updated legislation in 2024, largely aligned with the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. Foreign parties and their counsel should be aware of the following changes that are directly relevant to interim measures.

Expanded Tribunal Powers

One of the most significant changes under the updated law is the clearer recognition of the arbitral tribunal's authority to grant interim measures. Under the new framework, a tribunal seated in Israel has express statutory power to order interim measures unless the parties have agreed to exclude this power — a reversal of the older opt-in approach. This means that parties arbitrating under Israeli law now benefit from tribunal-level interim protection as a default, not something that had to be specially negotiated.

Preliminary Orders

The updated law also introduced the concept of preliminary orders — ex parte interim directions that a tribunal can issue without notice to the other party for a brief period, to preserve the applicant's position until a full inter partes application can be heard. This is a significant development: previously, ex parte interim protection in Israel was exclusively a court function. Preliminary orders automatically lapse within a short period (typically 20 days) unless converted into a full interim measure.

Court Jurisdiction Preserved

The parallel jurisdiction of Israeli courts to grant interim measures in support of arbitration — whether seated in Israel or abroad — has been preserved and clarified under the new law. Importantly, courts can also grant interim measures in support of arbitrations seated outside Israel where Israeli assets or Israeli parties are involved. For foreign parties with Israeli assets in play, this is a valuable tool regardless of where the arbitral seat is located.

Recognition of Tribunal-Ordered Measures

The updated framework provides a clearer mechanism for a party to seek court enforcement of an interim measure granted by the tribunal. If a respondent ignores a tribunal-ordered asset freeze, the court can now step in and enforce it as if it were a court order, with all the coercive tools that entails — including contempt of court sanctions. This closes a significant gap that existed under the older law.

Anti-Suit Injunctions

Israeli courts have become more willing to issue anti-suit injunctions — orders preventing a party from pursuing proceedings in another jurisdiction in breach of an arbitration clause. While this remains a discretionary remedy, the updated legal framework provides stronger statutory footing for such applications. Foreign parties who find their Israeli counterpart racing to a foreign court to circumvent an arbitration clause should consider this tool.

In Practice: When applying to an Israeli court for an ex parte asset attachment to support arbitration, you must provide a signed undertaking in damages — meaning you are personally liable if the court later finds the attachment was unjustified. Quantify the attachment amount carefully and don't overreach: attaching NIS 5 million on a NIS 1 million claim creates disproportionate risk and courts use this as a reason to refuse or scale back the application. Match your attachment request to the claim amount plus a realistic estimate of interest and costs.
In Practice: To obtain an anti-suit injunction in Tel Aviv District Court, you need: evidence of the arbitration clause, proof that foreign proceedings have been filed or are imminently threatened, and a draft of the order sought. Apply immediately — once foreign proceedings are advanced, the intervention becomes more difficult and the enforcement court may characterise the injunction as an impermissible interference with foreign judicial sovereignty. Speed is the entire point of this tool.