The Standards Institution of Israel, mandated by the Government of the State of Israel, is the country's national standards body, preparing and publishing Israeli standards as well as representing Israel in the international standards organizations, ISO and IEC. The Standardization Division coordinates the preparation of Israeli standards through hundreds of committees, comprising thousands of representatives from all the sectors of the Israeli economy and society.
Standards are prepared, revised and published by the Standardization Division of SII according to the Rules for Preparing Standards approved by the Minister of Industry and Trade. To date more than 3000 Israeli standards have been published. Standardization activities are divided into 17 different fields, each of which has a Central Committee. Actual preparation is carried out by approximately 600 Technical Committees and Working Groups, on which experts representing all the diverse sectors of the economy, serve together.
Adopting International Standards
SII follows a policy of harmonization of standards, whenever possible. The Technical Committees are encouraged to adopt existing, accepted international standards as Israeli standards, unless there is a specific local reason for not doing so. On occasion, certain local Israeli standards have been adopted by the international community. One of the fields in which the Israeli standard is the basic standard for international reference is irrigation equipment, in which Israel is regarded as a world leader.
Standards have a voluntary status, however, they may be converted into binding standards if it is vital for the protection of public safety or public health or the quality of the environment. The procedure to convert standards into binding standards is executed either by a declaration by the Minister of Trade and Industry of the standards as official standards, or by the publication of an order or regulation on behalf of the Minister responsible for the particular matter. |