The Israeli passport is issued to citizens of the State of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 for the purpose of international travel and entitles the bearer to the protection of Israel's consular officials overseas.

Israeli law allows Israeli citizens to hold foreign passports as well, but requires that the Israeli passport be used when entering and leaving Israel. This regulation was introduced officially into law in 2002, after having been legally contested on several occasions.

History

The first Israeli passport was issued to Golda Meir

Golda Meir

Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....

.

The first Israeli passports bore the inscription: "Valid to any country except Germany" (in Hebrew and French). An Israeli citizen who wished to visit Germany had to ask that the words "except Germany" be deleted from his passport. This was done manually by drawing a line on these words. The inscription was changed into "Valid to all countries" shortly after the signing of the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany

Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany

The Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany was signed on September 10, 1952, and entered in force on March 27, 1953...

 (1952).

Until 1980, Israeli passports used Hebrew and French. New regulations issued by the Israeli Minister of the Interior on March 30, 1980, ordered the use of Hebrew and English in Israeli passports. Subsequently the French texts were substituted with English texts.

According to Israeli law, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Iran are considered "Enemy countries" and an Israeli citizen may not visit them without a special permit issued by the Israeli minister of the interior. Therefore, an Israeli who visits these countries, be it with a foreign passport or an Israeli one, may be prosecuted when coming back to Israel. This list was set in 1954, and was updated only once on 25 July 2007 to include Iran

On 1 April 2008, the Israeli government proposed a new revised law which includes a list of 9 countries and territories to be defined as "enemy countries": Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Gaza Strip.

Since 2006 a valid Israeli passport is one of the documents accepted for identification in the general elections. Until then, only an internal identity card was accepted for this purpose. Voting outside Israel is impossible, unless the voter is a member of an Israeli diplomatic delegation, so in practice the new regulation merely enables the use of the passport as a backup on election day in case the internal ID is lost or defaced.

Denial of an Israeli passport is one of the sanctions an Israeli rabbinical court

Beth din

A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...

 may use in order to enforce divorce upon a husband who chains his wife into marriage against her will (see: agunah

Agunah

Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...

).

Biometric passport

Biometric passport

A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...

s are being introduced in compliance with United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 regulations. To obtain a biometric passport, "an applicant will have to appear in an Interior Ministry office to be photographed by the special camera which records information such as facial bone structure, distance between one's eyes, ears to eyes and ratio of facial features one from another. One will also be fingerprinted and all this information will be contained in the new high-tech electronic passport." The passports are valid for ten years.

Description

Israeli passports are navy blue, with the Israeli coat of arms

Coat of arms of Israel

The Emblem of the State of Israel shows a menorah surrounded by an olive branch on each side, and the writing "ישראל" below it...

 emblazoned in the center of the front cover, below the script "State of Israel" in both Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. The word "PASSPORT" is inscribed below the coat of arms, also in Hebrew and English. The inner pages are decorated with the Israeli emblem of olive branches and the seven-branched menorah.
The regular passport contains 32 pages.
The business passport contains 64 pages.

Israeli passports are valid for up to 10 years for persons over the age of 18. They are bilingual, using Hebrew and English. Since Hebrew is written from right to left, the passports are opened from their right end and their pages are arranged from right to left. Arabic is not used in Israeli passports, even though it is used in internal identity cards

Teudat Zehut

Teudat Zehut is the Israeli compulsory identity document, as prescribed in the Identity Card Carrying and Displaying Act of 1982:Any resident sixteen years of age or older must at all times carry an Identity card, and present it upon demand to a senior police officer, head of Municipal or Regional...

.

Identity information page

Israeli Passport Information appears on page 2, and includes the data as shown in the following order:

• Photo of Passport Holder on the left
• Type (P)
• Code of State (ISR)
• Passport No.
• Surname
• Given Name
• Nationality
• Date of Birth
• Sex
• Place of Birth
• Date of Issue
• Date of Expiry
• Authority (- I.C. Passport at)

All information appears both in Hebrew and English. The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.
Signature of Bearer is to follow on page 3.

Passport note

The statement in an Israeli passport declares in Hebrew (read from right to left) and English:

The Minister of the Interior of the State of Israel hereby requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer of this passport to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him such assistance and protection as may be necessary.

Countries that do not accept Israeli passports

(Clearance permit needed from the Ministry of Internal Security.) (Clearance permit needed from the Ministry of Internal Security.) (Clearance permit needed from the Ministry of Internal Security.)

Travel document in lieu of national passport

People who make aliyah

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 (immigrate) to Israel are generally not eligible for an Israeli passport until they have resided in Israel for at least one year. Until the residence requirement is met such new citizens are issued a "travel document in lieu of national passport" (Laissez-passer). Holders of this document may not enjoy the same visa-free access to certain other countries enjoyed by holders of a standard Israeli passport. This also applies to most Arab residents in East-Jerusalem and the Golan Heights who are not in possession of Israeli citizenship.