- On September 10,2024, a preliminary hearing was held on the plaintiff Yosef's claim;
- On September 10,2024, the suit was filed by the plaintiff;
- In the court's decision of September 11,2024, the hearing in the two proceedings was consolidated;
- On April 21,2025, a preliminary hearing was held before the Presiding Judge, during which orders were issued to the National Insurance Institute, the Tax Assessor, and Bank Hapoalim to produce various documents relating to the registration of the mafia;
The Ottoman Settlement [Old Version] 1916- On August 25,2025, and at the request of the plaintiff Yosef, his claim was dismissed while he was charged with costs, while the claim in question was set for further investigation;
12-34-56-78 Chekhov v. State of Israel, P.D. 51 (2)- Subsequently, affidavits of the main witness were submitted on behalf of the parties;
- On January 28,2026, the evidentiary hearing was held, during which the testimonies of the plaintiff himself and the witnesses on his behalf were heard: Mr. Salim Shihab (hereinafter: "Slim") and Mr. Zaher Hamdan (hereinafter: "Zaher").
The following witnesses testified on behalf of the defendant: the defendant, Nizar, Mr. Bilal Saeed (hereinafter: "Bilal") and Mr. Jamal Hassan (hereinafter: "Jamal");
At the end of the hearing, counsel for the parties asked to speak directly between them, in order to try to reach agreements;
- On February 25,2026, a preliminary hearing was held in the presence of counsel for the parties, in which counsel for the plaintiff clarified that he intended to file a lawsuit against Nizar as well (which was indeed filed in the end - see the additional proceeding). At the same time, counsel for the defendant clarified that he did not represent Nizar;
- When the parties did not reach agreements, and once it was clarified that the defendant's attorney did not represent Nizar, the parties submitted written summaries, and the proceeding was referred to a judgment.
- The Factual Basis and the Parties' Arguments
- The factual basis - The following are the main factual basis that is not in dispute between the parties:
- The plaintiff is a resident of the village of Anin in the Palestinian Authority;
- The defendant is the registered owner with the tax authorities as of November 1,2012, of the "Elnoor Bakery" in the city of Acre (hereinafter: "the Bakery", as stated above). [1]The defendant is also registered as a self-employed person with the National Insurance Institute, with his file registered as active as of November 1,2012[2];
- The bakery's financial activity was managed from an account at Bank Hapoalim which is registered in the defendant's name;
- The plaintiff's salary was paid in cash, without an employment agreement and/or notice to the employee, and without being issued pay slips;
- The plaintiff's employment in the mafia was done without the issuance of a work permit and entry into Israel for Palestinian workers.
- The parties' arguments - the plaintiff argued, like this:
- He was employed by the defendant, who is the owner of the bakery and one of its managers, for about 7 years, from January 12,2014 until January 2,2021 - when he was fired due to medical problems from which he suffered;
- The defendant was his direct employer, as he was the owner of the bakery and the person who also managed it, while Nizar also served as an additional manager of the bakery;
- He was employed as a shift manager at the bakery, and as part of his position, he was responsible for, among other things, overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the bakery. Among other things, he was responsible for the operation of the bakery's cash register, the payment system and the accounting system with both suppliers and customers, as well as supervising and guiding the staff at the bakery;
- He was employed full-time, 7 days a week (including the rest day), and also on holidays, when his vacations at home were limited to only two days every three months. His working hours on all days of the week were between 15 and 17.5 hours a day;
- His salary was paid in cash every two weeks by Nizar or Bilal, and was ILS 9,000 net per month (approximately ILS 10,080 gross), without overtime pay;
- His cogent rights were deprived throughout his years of employment, and among other things, he was not given notice of the terms of employment, no pay slips were issued, and various rights such as pension payments, convalescence pay, holiday pay, and reimbursement of travel expenses were not paid.
- The defendant claimed, like this:
- The claim against him should be dismissed due to the lack of an employee-employer relationship between him and the plaintiff;