Recording Telephone Conversations 101

Under Israeli law, it is legal for one person to record a conversation between that person and one other person even without the second person’s knowledge.

It is generally illegal for a third party who is not part of a telephone call to record a conversation between two other persons if neither of them knows. The police can overcome this legal bar by getting a warrant to wiretap as part of a criminal investigation.

In the case of Yair Netanyahu, it has not yet been revealed which of the people involved in the telephone conversation recorded it, and it is unclear how the call being taken in a public forum seemingly on speaker-phone would impact the legal prohibition of a third party recording two others without their knowledge.

Part of the twist in this case is that, as opposed to the conventional case of a third party recording two people without their knowledge, which usually means they do not know they are being eavesdropped on, Yair Netanyahu and others speaking did at least know that there were third parties listening in on their conversation.

After past embarrassing recorded telephone conversations were obtained by the media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others had played with the idea of making it illegal to record a conversation unless both parties to the conversation consented, as is the case in some countries, but the proposal went nowhere when concerns were raised that this would insulate corrupt power-brokers from whistle-blowers and media oversight.