Israel Government API

Instructions

Step 1: Understand the Data Need

Ask the user:

What topic? (transportation, health, education, economy, etc.)
What geography? (national, specific city/region, specific address)
What time period? (current, historical, time series)
What format? (raw data, summary statistics, visualization)

Step 2: Search for Datasets

Use the data.gov.il CKAN API to find relevant datasets:

Search by keyword:

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?q=KEYWORD&rows=10

Search by organization (ministry):

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?fq=organization:MINISTRY_ID

Common organization IDs:

Ministry	ID	Hebrew
Central Bureau of Statistics	lamas	halishka hamerkazit listatistika
Ministry of Transportation	ministry_of_transport	misrad hatahaburah
Ministry of Health	ministry-health	misrad habriut
Ministry of Education	ministry_of_education	misrad hachinuch
Israel Tax Authority	taxes-authority	rashut hamisim
Israel Land Authority	the_israel_lands_administration	rashut mekarkei yisrael
Ministry of Interior	interior_affairs	misrad hapnim

Step 3: Retrieve and Query Data

Once a dataset is found:

Get dataset details:

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_show?id=DATASET_ID

Query tabular data (datastore):

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&limit=100

Filter by field values:

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&filters={"field_name":"value"}&limit=100

Select specific fields and sort:

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&fields=field1,field2&sort=field1 desc&limit=100

Full-text search within a resource:

GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&q=search+term&limit=100

Important: The

datastore_search_sql

endpoint may be disabled on data.gov.il (often returns 403 Forbidden). Use

datastore_search

with

filters

fields

sort

limit

, and

offset

parameters instead.

Tips:

Field names are often in Hebrew -- use
```
datastore_search
```
with
```
limit=1
```
first to see field names
Use
```
filters
```
parameter with a JSON object for exact field matching (e.g.,
```
filters={"city_code":"5000"}
```
)
Use
```
q
```
parameter for full-text search across all fields
Large datasets: use
```
limit
```
and
```
offset
```
for pagination
Date fields may be in various formats -- check dataset documentation

Pagination:

Offset paging caps at roughly 32,000 records on the data.gov.il datastore. Above that, deep
```
offset=
```
requests will start returning errors or empty pages.
For datasets above ~32k rows, switch to cursor paging on
```
_id
```
: sort by
```
_id
```
ascending and keep
```
filters={"_id":">LAST_ID"}
```
between calls. CKAN exposes the
```
_id
```
integer on every record.
The response
```
total
```
field is the count of all records in the resource (not in the page), so use it to plan how many pages you need.
```
records_format
```
accepts
```
objects
```
(default JSON),
```
lists
```
(positional arrays),
```
csv
```
, or
```
tsv
```
.
```
lists
```
and
```
csv
```
are noticeably faster and cheaper for large pulls; reach for them when streaming or bulk-extracting.

Step 4: Analyze and Present

For the retrieved data:

Summarize key findings in plain language
Calculate basic statistics if requested (mean, median, trends)
Suggest visualizations (bar chart, line graph, map) appropriate to the data
Note data freshness (last update date) and any caveats
Provide the direct link to the dataset on data.gov.il for reference

Step 5: Cross-Reference (Advanced)

When combining multiple datasets:

Identify common keys (city code, date, category code)
Use Israeli administrative codes (CBS city codes) for geographic joins
Note that field names across datasets may differ -- match by content not name
Document data lineage: which datasets contributed to the analysis

Commonly Requested Datasets

Resource IDs below were verified live on 2026-05-13 via

datastore_search?resource_id=<id>&limit=1

. IDs on data.gov.il do change without notice. Always re-verify before quoting them to a user.

Dataset	Resource ID	Description
Private and commercial vehicles (vehicle registration)	`053cea08-09bc-40ec-8f7a-156f0677aff3`	Full registry of private and commercial vehicle license plates with make, model, year. ~4.1M rows.
Public-transport vehicles	`cf29862d-ca25-4691-84f6-1be60dcb4a1e`	Active license plates of public-transport vehicles (buses, taxis). ~65k rows.
Education institutions ( `mosdot` )	`5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232`	Characteristics of educational institutions supervised by the Ministry of Education. ~120k rows.
Registered amutot (NGOs)	`be5b7935-3922-45d4-9638-08871b17ec95`	Ministry of Justice registry of associations / non-profits. ~75k rows.

For other domains (GTFS public transport, real-estate transactions, hospital quality, air quality), use

package_search

to discover the current dataset, then

package_show

to grab the active

resources[].id

-- those IDs rotate when datasets are re-published year over year.

Examples

Example 1: Find School Data (full chained workflow)

User says: "I need data about schools in Tel Aviv"

Actions (do not skip the lookup steps -- resource IDs rotate):

Discover candidate datasets:

curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?q=mosdot&rows=5"

Inspect the chosen dataset and grab the active

resources[].id

curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_show?id=mosdot" \
  | python3 -c "import sys,json; r=json.load(sys.stdin)['result']['resources']; [print(x['id'], x['format'], x.get('name','')) for x in r]"

Peek at field names with

limit=1

curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232&limit=1"

Filter by Tel Aviv city code (5000) once you have the correct Hebrew field name (commonly

סמל_ישוב

). Hebrew values must be percent-encoded:

curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232&filters=%7B%22%D7%A1%D7%9E%D7%9C_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91%22%3A%225000%22%7D&limit=100"

Result: Structured school list for Tel Aviv (count, types, sizes).

Example 2: Analyze Housing Prices

User says: "Show me housing price trends in Haifa"

Actions:

package_search?q=nadlan

q=%D7%A2%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%95%D7%AA

to find the Tax Authority real-estate transactions dataset.

```
package_show?id=<slug>
```
and grab the most recent year's resource id from
```
resources[]
```
.
```
datastore_search
```
with the Haifa city code filter, sorted by transaction date descending.
Group by month, compute median price per square meter, calculate month-over-month percentage change.

Result: Monthly price trend for Haifa with analysis.

Example 3: Municipal Data Comparison

User says: "Compare education spending across Israeli cities"

Actions:

package_search?q=%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%91%20%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9A

(budget + education in Hebrew, percent-encoded).

Pick a municipal-budget dataset,
```
package_show
```
to retrieve the active resource id.
```
datastore_search
```
filtered to education-category rows; paginate via
```
_id
```
cursor if the resource exceeds 32k rows.
Normalize per capita using
```
lamas
```
(CBS) population figures.

Result: Ranked comparison of education spending per student across major Israeli municipalities with data source and year.

Bundled Resources

Scripts

```
scripts/query_datagov.py
```
-- Search datasets, inspect resources, and run datastore queries against the data.gov.il CKAN API directly from the command line. Supports subcommands:
```
search
```
,
```
dataset
```
,
```
query
```
,
```
orgs
```
. Run:
```
python scripts/query_datagov.py --help
```

References

```
references/ckan-api-reference.md
```
-- Complete endpoint catalog for the data.gov.il CKAN API including search parameters, datastore query syntax, and common organization IDs. Consult when constructing API calls or debugging query syntax.

Recommended MCP Servers

Pair this skill with an MCP server so your agent can call data.gov.il (or a derived dataset) directly as tools, without scripting HTTP calls.

MCP	URL	What it gives you
`datagov-israel`	https://agentskills.co.il/he/mcps/government-services/datagov-israel	Direct MCP tool access to the data.gov.il CKAN API (search, package_show, datastore_search).
`data-gov-il`	https://agentskills.co.il/he/mcps/government-services/data-gov-il	Alternative MCP wrapping the same data.gov.il CKAN API.
`israel-vehicles`	https://agentskills.co.il/he/mcps/government-services/israel-vehicles	Pre-scoped MCP for the vehicle registration dataset (license-plate lookup, make/model/year).
`israel-amutot`	https://agentskills.co.il/he/mcps/government-services/israel-amutot	Pre-scoped MCP for the Ministry of Justice amutot (NGO) registry.
`israel-elections`	https://agentskills.co.il/he/mcps/government-services/israel-elections	Pre-scoped MCP for Israeli election results data.

When this skill walks the user through a query, prefer the dedicated MCP if it's installed; fall back to the raw CKAN API otherwise.

Gotchas

Israeli government data APIs (data.gov.il) frequently change URLs and endpoint structures without notice. Agents may hardcode endpoints that worked last month but now return 404. Re-verify resource IDs with
```
package_show
```
before quoting them.
The data.gov.il API returns data with Hebrew column headers by default. Agents may fail to parse responses that contain non-ASCII header names in JSON or CSV output.
Hebrew filter values and
```
q
```
parameters must be UTF-8 percent-encoded. Raw Hebrew in URLs breaks several HTTP clients (some
```
curl
```
builds, older
```
requests
```
versions, certain proxies). Example: search for "רכב" as
```
q=%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%91
```
; filter on "חיפה" as
```
filters=%7B%22city%22%3A%22%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94%22%7D
```
.
Rate limiting on gov.il APIs is strict and undocumented. Agents that make rapid sequential requests will be blocked. Always add delays between API calls.
A 403 response with body
```
Security Violation
```
is the data.gov.il WAF terminating your session. This is distinct from an auth 403. Recovery: back off exponentially (10s, 30s, 60s), drop any session cookies, and retry with a fresh
```
User-Agent
```
. Do not retry tight-loop, the WAF will extend the block.
Many government datasets have date fields in DD/MM/YYYY format (Israeli convention), not ISO 8601. Agents may parse "01/02/2026" as February 1st instead of January 2nd.
Offset paging caps around 32k records. For larger pulls, use cursor paging on
```
_id
```
(sort by
```
_id
```
ascending, filter
```
_id
```
greater than last seen).

Reference Links

Source	URL	What to Check
data.gov.il portal	https://data.gov.il	Browse Israeli open data catalog, organizations, datasets
CKAN API reference	https://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/api/	`package_search` , `package_show` , `datastore_search` signatures
data.gov.il dataset list	https://data.gov.il/dataset	Discover available datasets by organization and tag
Central Bureau of Statistics	https://www.cbs.gov.il	Upstream source for many data.gov.il statistics
Bank of Israel data	https://www.boi.org.il	Financial and monetary datasets not on data.gov.il

Troubleshooting

Error: "Dataset not found"

Cause: Search terms too specific or in wrong language Solution: Try broader Hebrew keywords. Government data is primarily in Hebrew.

Error: "Datastore not available"

Cause: Not all resources have the datastore (queryable) API enabled Solution: Download the CSV/Excel resource directly and process locally.

Error: "403 Forbidden" on SQL queries

Cause: The

datastore_search_sql

endpoint may be disabled by data.gov.il Solution: Use

datastore_search