Can a Foreigner Register a .il Domain? ISOC-IL Rules by Zone, Banned Names, Renewal and the IL-DRP

Yes. A foreign person or company can register a .co.il or .org.il domain. The Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL), which runs the .il registry, allocates both zones “to any person or other legal entity”: there is no Israeli citizenship, residency, company or trademark requirement. You cannot register directly under .il (there is no example.il), and the other six zones, such as .ac.il and .gov.il, are reserved for Israeli institutions. What ISOC-IL does require is a real, identifiable holder: a legal name, a postal address, a phone number and, for a company, its official registration number. You can check availability on our .IL domain page.

Checked on 11 November 2026 against ISOC-IL’s Rules for the Allocation of Domain Names under .IL (version 1.9, last updated February 2022, the latest published version we could find), the IL-DRP dispute rules (page last modified 7 February 2024) and the registry’s live WHOIS. Section numbers below refer to the allocation rules. Registry rules change, so this page gives sources rather than prices.

Which .il zones are open, and to whom

The .il namespace has no open second level. Names are allocated at the third level inside a fixed list of zones (s. 4.1), and a DNS lookup for a name such as isoc.il returns “no such domain” (checked 11 November 2026). Two zones are open to anyone; six are restricted.

Zone	Who can register it	Proof required	Open to foreigners?
.co.il	Any person or legal entity; “primarily intended for entities operating for-profit” (s. 4.2)	None beyond accurate holder data	Yes
.org.il	Any person or legal entity; “primarily intended for non-profit entities” (s. 4.2)	None beyond accurate holder data	Yes
.net.il	Internet service providers holding a valid licence from the Israeli Ministry of Communications (s. 4.3a)	Licence; ISOC-IL may ask for evidence at registration or renewal (s. 4.5)	No
.ac.il	Higher-education institutions recognised by the Israel Council for Higher Education; only names it authorises (s. 4.3b)	Council approval	No
.gov.il	Israeli government entities (s. 4.3c)	Handled by the government’s own committee	No
.idf.il	Israel Defense Forces entities, through the IDF computing unit (s. 4.3d)	IDF authorisation	No
.k12.il	Kindergartens and schools classified by the Ministry of Education, at the fourth level: school.town.k12.il (s. 4.3e)	Ministry classification	No
.muni.il	Municipal authorities, following the official list of settlements of the Central Bureau of Statistics (s. 4.3f)	Municipal status	No

In the restricted zones, ISOC-IL can refuse a renewal, suspend the name or cancel it if the holder stops meeting the condition (s. 4.6, 21.2d). The open zones have no such test: a for-profit foreign company can hold a .org.il and a charity can hold a .co.il; the “primarily intended” wording describes the purpose, not an eligibility rule.

Israel also has a Hebrew-script country domain, .ישראל (“Israel”, technically xn--4dbrk0ce), added to the root zone on 16 June 2020 and run by ISOC-IL under its own rules (April 2022). Unlike .il, it allows names directly at the second level, also “to any person or other legal entity”. It is far smaller: the registry counted 288,134 .il names and 11,530 .ישראל names in September 2024.

What ISOC-IL asks of a foreign registrant

“Open to anyone” does not mean anonymous. Every application, filed by an accredited registrar on the holder’s behalf (ISOC-IL stopped registering directly on 1 November 2016, s. 3), carries these conditions:

Requirement	What it means in practice	Source
An existing legal entity	The holder must be a real individual or a legally existing organisation. An application warrants this.	s. 6.2, 23.2
Full holder data	Full legal name; whether the holder is an individual or a corporation; for a corporation, “an identity number in a formal registry” (a foreign company uses the number from its home company register); a physical postal address with street, number, city, postcode and country; an active email; a phone number.	s. 23.2
Two kinds of holder excluded	“Domain Names cannot be registered by a ‘licensed dealer’ or an unregistered partnership.” A licensed dealer (osek murshe) is an Israeli sole-trader tax status; such a person registers in their own name instead.	s. 6.2
Checks after registration	ISOC-IL may approve on the data provided and examine the holder’s details afterwards, and may suspend or delete a name where the details were not sufficiently confirmed.	s. 7.1
Random holder validation	Since February 2022, according to registrars that sell .co.il, the registry picks new registrations at random and asks for an ID or passport (individuals) or a company certificate (organisations). Registrars report a 21-day deadline, after which the domain is deleted without refund.	Registrar documentation (Openprovider)
Email confirmation	Many registrars send a verification link to the registrant before the order reaches the registry; an unconfirmed order fails.	Registrar documentation (Openprovider, OpenSRS)

The practical rule: register in the exact name that appears on your passport or company registration, with an address and email you can prove. A .co.il held under a nickname or a brand name with no legal entity behind it is the one that fails a random check.

Part of the data is public. A live WHOIS query to the registry on 11 November 2026 showed the registrant name, registrant, admin and technical email addresses, name servers, dates and status, but no postal address or phone number. The allocation rules make this registry data public (s. 22), and we offer no privacy service for .il. You can run the same lookup on our .IL WHOIS page.

Names you cannot register under .co.il

• Fewer than 3 or more than 63 characters. Letters a-z, digits and hyphens only; no leading or trailing hyphen, and no double hyphen (s. 5.2).
• Any string that is already a top-level domain. The name “must not be identical to any existing Top Level Domain name in the global Internet” at the time of the application (s. 5.2c). With more than 1,400 TLDs now in the root zone, everyday words such as shop, app, blog or online cannot be registered as shop.co.il and so on. The string www is also barred.
• Hebrew names. ISOC-IL suspended new Hebrew-script names under .il on 19 May 2020, in favour of .ישראל. Hebrew .co.il names registered before that date continue (s. 2).
• Offensive names. Names that are obscene, injurious to public order or sensibilities, or contrary to Israeli law. A committee of academics, judges and internet experts decides, and ISOC-IL can suspend or delete such a name even after registration (s. 8.3).
• Names already allocated. Applications are examined “first-to-apply, first-served”, by the registry’s time stamp (s. 7.3, 7.4). There is no priority for trademark owners at registration; that is what the dispute procedure is for.

Term, renewal and expiry

Stage	The rule	Source
Registration term	1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 years at the registry. At Register.Domains, .co.il and .org.il are sold in 1-year terms and renewed every year.	s. 11.1; our product settings
Renewal window	A renewal “may only be submitted during the last 3 months” of the current term. You cannot renew a .il a year ahead.	s. 17.1b
Reminders	The registry does not notify you; renewal is “exclusively” the holder’s responsibility.	s. 17.3a
After expiry	ISOC-IL will not cancel the name within 30 days of expiry (the grace period) and may extend that by up to 90 more days. During the grace period only a renewal or one transfer is accepted. Registrars report that in practice an expired .co.il is disabled after about 45 days and deleted after about 90.	s. 17.3c-d; Openprovider
Not in use	A name must be delegated to working primary and secondary name servers. With no active delegation for at least a year, ISOC-IL may remove it.	s. 13.1-13.2
Change of holder	A re-assignment deletes the old record and creates a new one with a fresh 1-5 year term; the remaining time is not carried over.	s. 19.1, 19.4b
Deleting early	No refund for unused time.	s. 20.3

Two consequences for a foreign owner: keep auto-renewal on, because the 3-month window and the absence of registry reminders make a missed renewal easy; and point the name at real name servers from day one, because .il expects names to be used.

Disputes: the IL-DRP is broader than the UDRP, and it runs in Hebrew

Every .il holder accepts ISOC-IL’s own dispute procedure, the IL-DRP, as a condition of registration (s. 25.4). It looks like the UDRP used for .com, with three differences that matter to a foreign brand owner:

	IL-DRP (.il and .ישראל)	UDRP (.com and other gTLDs)
What the complainant must own	A trademark, trade name, registered corporation name or registered name of a legal entity	A trademark or service mark
Bad faith test	Applied for or used in bad faith	Registered and used in bad faith
Language	Hebrew: the proceeding, emails and decision; attachments may be in Hebrew or English	The language of the registration agreement, unless the parties agree or the panel decides otherwise
Timeline	Panel appointed within 28 days of filing and fee; holder has 15 days to respond; decision targeted within 21 days of the response	Set by the UDRP Rules and the provider
Before a transfer or deletion	ISOC-IL gives the holder at least 30 days’ notice to go to an Israeli court	10 business days to show a court case has been filed

Sources: IL-DRP rules on ISOC-IL’s Dispute Resolution Panels page; ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, s. 4(a) and 4(k), and the UDRP Rules, para. 11. The IL-DRP does not review a refusal or cancellation by ISOC-IL itself, nor a commercial dispute with your registrar; those go to court. While a case is open the domain keeps working but cannot be transferred to another holder or deleted.

Two practical points follow. A .co.il registered in good faith can still be lost if it is later used in bad faith. And a foreign company that has to bring or defend a case should plan for Hebrew-language submissions, which usually means local counsel.

What some registrar pages get wrong

• “.co.il is restricted to Israel” or “Country: Israel”. Some sales pages label .co.il as restricted. Section 4.2 allocates it to any person or legal entity, with no country condition.
• “IDN: yes”. Hebrew names under .co.il have been closed to new registrations since May 2020; Hebrew names now go under .ישראל.
• “Register example.il”. Not possible: .il has no open second level.
• “Instant and anonymous”. Registration is often fast, but holder data is checked, can be verified at random afterwards, and the name and email are public.

Checklist before you register a .co.il

1. Pick the zone: .co.il for a business or personal site, .org.il for a non-profit. Both are open to foreigners.
2. Check the name: 3-63 characters, Latin letters, digits or hyphens, and not a string that is already a TLD.
3. Register in your exact legal name; a company should have its registration number and legal form (Ltd, Inc, GmbH) ready.
4. Use an address you can prove and an email you read: it is how the registry and your registrar reach you, and the email is public.
5. Set real name servers at registration and keep the domain in use.
6. Turn on auto-renewal: renewal opens only in the last 3 months and the registry sends no reminder.
7. If the brand matters in Israel, register the .co.il early: allocation is first-come, first-served, and getting a name back through the IL-DRP means a case in Hebrew.

For countries that do require a local presence or a trustee, see our ccTLD local presence requirements by country. The other extensions in the region are on our Middle East domains page, and current prices for every country domain are on the ccTLD price list.

Ready to register? Search for your .co.il or .org.il domain: no Israeli address, company or trademark needed.