Corruption in Israel

There is evidence that corruption is a legitimate problem in Israeli politics and many investigations have taken place into allegations of influence peddling and bribery.

Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Israel a score of 62. When ranked by score, Israel ranked 33rd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180). For comparison with regional scores, the average score among Middle Eastern and North African countries was 34, the highest score was 68 and the lowest was 13.

Corruption does not appear to be institutionalized and businesses can largely operate and invest in Israel without interference from corrupt officials. The judiciary is considered by businesses to be at low risk of corruption; however, the public services sector is reported to have a moderate risk of corruption, with business leaders reporting the payment of bribes in exchange for access to public utilities, with an ineffective bureaucratic government being considered by some to be the source of the problem.

In 2019 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted for corruption, due to the acceptance of expensive gifts such as fine champagne and cigars totaling to a value of approximately $198,000.