The Honorable Judge Ayala Procaccia in Civil Appeal 9008/01 State of Israel v. A.M. Turgeman Ltd., IsrSC 57(5) 799 (2003), in paragraph 12 of its judgment at p. 810:
"Alongside the importance of conducting criminal proceedings as a general value, there is a growing awareness of the general importance of imposing criminal liability on a corporation. Admittedly, the issue of criminal liability imposed on a corporation is known as a complex issue that is fraught with conceptual and moral difficulties.... However, despite the familiar difficulties that accompany this, criminal liability for a corporation was established in section 23 of the Penal Law, 5737-1977, and the concept in favor of enforcing such liability is taking root in law with the strengthening of the status of corporations in modern law and the consciousness that requires their subordination to a system of norms of conduct that will ensure respect for values that are essential to society and conformity with the prevailing perceptions of life."
This was also discussed by the Honorable Justice Dafna Barak-Erez in HCJ 4395/12 Dror Cohen v. Central District Attorney's Office (published in Nevo, 2012, hereinafter: the Railway Case):
"Indeed, today, the principle of corporate criminal liability is an institutional foundation of our law.... The reasons for recognizing it are mainly pragmatic – the centrality of corporations in economic activity and the concern that non-recognition of corporate criminal liability will allow criminal acts to be covered under the opaque veil of the corporate structure."
We find a similar view in the literature. Thus, for example, the words of Bar-Mor, Corporations, at p. 76 (in chapter 4.31, which deals with the corporation's criminal liability):
"The corporation, as a real entity, has a legally recognized entity, is a citizen of the world community, and therefore must bear personal criminal responsibility in order to protect the interests it may harm. The scope of the areas and issues in which the corporation is involved is almost exactly the same as that of an individual, and therefore it should be subjected to a similar network of liabilities. The intense involvement of the corporation in modern activity invites situations of actions or omissions carried out in the name of a corporation, which society wishes to prevent. The prevention will therefore be carried out by imposing personal criminal liability on the corporation."