Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel (Likud) will submit a decision to tomorrow's (Sunday) Cabinet meeting, instructing public services to accept documents through means other than faxes.
After the decision is approved, all government offices will be instructed to accept documents through e-mail and all other forms of digital media. This will not prevent people from using faxes should they choose do to so.
This comes as part of the Ministry for Social Equality's efforts to improve public services and to support innovation in the public sector, as part of its "Digital Israel" initiative. The Telecommunications Authority, under the leadership of Yair Frank, also contributed.
Before Gamliel finalized her decision, a pilot test was conducted in the Justice Ministry's corporate authority. On the authority's website, the fax number was temporarily replaced with an e-mail address. The change had the immediately result of changing the submission from 80 percent via fax and 20 percent via e-mail to over 80 percent coming in by e-mail. This conclusively proved the need for digital tools among the public.
"The decision that will be submitted for the government's approval is no less than a service revolution and an additional step that will significantly ease the lives of Israeli citizens, who have until now been required to submit documents to government offices by mail, fax, and often to physically appear at the offices during limited hours, for an issue that could be solved simply by sending an e-mail from a computer or cell phone," said Gamliel.
She added: "Sending e-mails to government offices will streamline their services for citizens, save hours of work and awkward bureaucratic burdens, and reduce the social gaps in the population. The Ministry for Social Equality, through the 'Digital Israel' project, is acting and will continue to act in order to adapt and make government services more accessible to citizens through digital and technological advances."