Israel Apparel Labeling: Hebrew Labels, Care Marks and Import Checks

Israel buys a lot of imported apparel for a small market, and its labelling expectations sit closer to Europe than to the Gulf: metric sizes, fibre composition and care instructions are the norm. What surprises first-time exporters is that the label must be readable in Hebrew and must carry the importer's details. A shipment that clears customs can still be rejected at the retailer's quality desk because one Hebrew wash instruction is missing.

This guide covers four things: what the law requires, how to lay out a right-to-left label, which Hebrew care terms to print, and how Israeli sizing maps to European sizes. It closes with the reason one label cannot serve a style that also ships to the EU, Japan, Korea or Brazil.

1. The legal frame: what an Israeli label must carry

Consumer protection in Israel rests on the Consumer Protection Law, 5741-1981, together with the import orders issued by the Ministry of Economy and Industry. For an imported garment this comes down to four practical points: product information in Hebrew, an identifiable importer, the technical requirements of the applicable Israeli standard (SI), and truthful origin marking.

• Hebrew: care, composition and warnings in Hebrew. A sticker over the original label is acceptable only if it stays legible after washing.
• Importer: name and address of the Israeli importer or sole distributor, on the label or on the sealed retail packaging.
• Standards: the Standards Institution of Israel publishes the SI standards. Confirm with the importer which SI requirement applies to your garment group before you print.
• Origin: the country of manufacture stated as fact. A 'designed in' line does not replace it.

2. Hebrew layout: right to left, and readable after washing

Hebrew reads right to left, so a bilingual label designed left to right puts the Hebrew block at the wrong visual start. Do it this way: Hebrew first on the right, the second language below it or on the reverse, and one fixed order inside the block — composition, care, size, origin, importer.

• Composition: fibre percentages by weight, dominant fibre first, adding up to 100%.
• Care: symbols plus Hebrew text. Symbols alone are not enough for the Israeli retail channel.
• Size: the size number the buying office uses, with the body measurement in cm for reference.
• Origin and importer: country of manufacture and importer name and address, printed or on a permanent sticker.
• Traceability: style, colour and batch codes that match the packing list, so a retail query can be answered from the label itself.

3. Care symbols and the Hebrew terms to print

Israel uses the international care symbol system, so ISO 3758 symbols read the same as in Europe. The difference is the wording: retail expects Hebrew words next to the symbols, and machine translation is easy to spot on a care label.

• כביסה — washing, usually with the temperature, for example כביסה 30°
• ניקוי יבש — dry cleaning
• אין להלבין — do not bleach
• גיהוץ — ironing, with the dot level for temperature
• הרכב — composition
• ארץ ייצור — country of origin

Have a native speaker read the finished label. The two errors that recur are a care instruction that contradicts the symbol beside it — a 40 °C symbol with a hot-wash instruction — and an invented compound for a fibre name. Hebrew fibre terms are short and standard, so there is no reason to invent one.

4. Sizes and measurements for the Israeli market

Israeli retail works in centimetres and its size numbers follow the European scale more closely than the American one, but the scale itself is set by the buying office. Print the body measurement in cm next to the size so the consumer can match it, and keep fabric weight in g/m² in the technical file rather than on the care label.

• Womenswear: European numbers, typically 34-48, with bust and waist in cm on the size sticker.
• Menswear: European numbers, typically 46-56, with chest circumference in cm.
• Kidswear: height bands in cm, for example 104-110 cm, which parents find easier than an age label.

5. One style, several markets: do not print one global label

Most brands that ship to Israel also ship to Europe, and often to Asia or Brazil. One label in one language fails in every market; the workable answer is one label per destination printed in the same run, with composition and symbols shared and only the wording changed.

Market	What the label must add
EU	A responsible person in the EU under GPSR (EU) 2023/988, and fibre composition under (EU) No 1007/2011. In Germany the Pflegeetikett must also carry Faserzusammensetzung under the Textilkennzeichnungsgesetz.
France	Mandatory mentions in French under the Code de la consommation, plus the care symbol row.
Spain	Spanish text with etiquetado and composición, following Real Decreto 928/1987 on textile labelling.
Japan	A Japanese label under 家庭用品品質表示法: 混用率, 洗濯表示 and 原産国, with the size in cm.
Korea	A 취급 표시 block with 혼용률 and 원산지, per the quality marking rules of 전기용품 및 생활용품 안전관리법.
Brazil	Portuguese text with etiqueta de conservação, composição and the importer, as required by the CDC (Lei 8.078/1990) and ABNT practice.

The table is also a cost argument: printing four destination labels in one run costs far less than four separate orders, and it removes the relabelling step in the warehouse, which is where shipments usually lose a week.

6. Where Israeli import and retail checks fail

• A Hebrew sticker that lifts in the wash, leaving the garment with no visible Hebrew.
• Percentages that do not add up to 100, or a composition order that puts the minor fibre first.
• A size scale that disagrees with the purchase order: the label says 38, the order says M.
• Importer details known to the customs broker but missing on the label.
• Care symbols that contradict the text beside them, for example a 40 °C symbol with a hot-wash instruction.

Related reading

• Care label standards: what each market requires
• EU garment label compliance: GPSR and 1007/2011
• Trims FAQ: all articles