What is the default time limit for an Israeli arbitrator to deliver the award?

The Arbitration Law builds in a set of fallback rules through its First Schedule, which fills any gaps the parties left in their agreement. One of those rules gives the arbitrator three months to render the award, counted from when the hearing began or the arbitrator was first required to act. Because these are default rules, they yield to anything the parties expressly agreed, so a contract that sets a six-month timetable or its own procedure displaces the three-month figure entirely. The period can also be extended, either by the arbitrator within the limits the law allows or by the District Court on application, which is common in complex commercial cases that simply cannot conclude in a single quarter. The arbitration process is therefore more flexible in practice than the headline number suggests.

For parties this matters most as a tool for keeping an arbitration moving rather than as a strict guillotine on the award. An arbitrator who blows through the deadline without an extension has not necessarily produced a worthless award, but the delay can support an application to the court to remove them and appoint a replacement. The practical advice is to address timing in the arbitration clause itself, setting a realistic deadline and a clear mechanism to extend it by agreement, so that neither side can later weaponise a missed date. Foreign parties used to institutional rules with their own timetables should check whether those rules, rather than the First Schedule, govern. Building in sensible deadlines at the drafting stage avoids both unnecessary delay and tactical challenges later.

From the full guide: The Arbitration Process in Israel — Step by Step

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