Judge David Gidoni of the Jerusalem District Court recently approved an application filed by Meir Ben Shachar, Adv. and Sagi Aharon, Adv. of Joseph Shem Tov & Co. The application was filed on-behalf of Taldor Cables and Systems Ltd., requiring the Finance Ministry to cease a central tender for the acquisition of communications equipment for all government offices. The application was filed as part of an administrative petition in which it was claimed, among other things, that the Accountant General of the Finance Ministry attempted to avoid complying with the Preference for Israeli Products Regulation (the “Israeli Preference Regulation”) which requires public tenders to grant preference to Israeli products.

For example, the petitioner showed that the terms of the tender provided that no preference would be given to Israeli products over products imported from countries that entered into the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) together with Israel under any circumstances. Generally, the GPA provides that in public tenders, a participating country will not give preference to its own products over those of other participating countries. However, the GPA does not apply to every public tender and there are various exceptions to the rules. Therefore, the Israeli Preference Regulations should prevail where a tender does not fall under the ambit of the GPA.

The petitioner claims that the terms of the tender in question are an attempt to avoid complying with the legal obligations of the government under the Israeli Preference Regulation and the provisions are therefore invalid and must be removed from the terms of the tender. As stated, the Jerusalem District Court approved the petitioner’s application for a temporary injunction ordering the cessation of the tender and cancellation of the deadline for filing bids until the matter has been heard fully in the courts.

Prior to filing the petition, Meir Ben Shachar, the partner who manages Joseph Shem Tov & Co.’s litigation department wrote to the Acquisition Manager of the Accountant General’s office in the name of Taldor with a request to change the offending provisions of the tender, but the request was turned down. The request to the Accountant General’s office was publicized in a Hebrew Globes report which can be founder here. A Hebrew report on the temporary injunction can be read here.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time in which clients of ours have been forced to file petitions in connection with tenders issued by the Accountant General due to that office’s attempts to avoid its legal obligations under the Israeli Preference Regulation. In August 2019, the Jerusalem District Court cancelled a similar tender published by the Accountant General in which the court reasoned that the provisions of that tender did not comply with the legal requirement to give preference to Israeli products in public tenders. You can read about that petition in Hebrew here.