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An Israeli court has ruled that a collection of Franz Kafka's works contrary to the author’s will to be destroyed must be handed to Israel's national library.

The court justified its decision with a fact that such historical values must be kept in state archives. Kafka, who lived and worked in Prague devised to destroy all his writings shortly before his death. Kafka gave the writings to his friend Max Brod. It is thought the manuscripts might include unpublished material by Kafka. Brod ignored his friend's request to burn his works when he died.

In 1968 after Brod’s death his secretary Ester Hoffen bequeathed the writing. After her death, her daughters refused to hand them over and applied to the court to recognize their property rights over the writings.

At a trial which started in 2008 in Tel Aviv, Hoffe's daughters argued Brod's intention was to make the collection a gift to their mother.

However, Justice Talia Kopelman-Pardo ruled that "the Kafka writings, like the Brod collection," could not be considered a gift to Hoffe's daughters.

"The Brod collection should be handed to the archive," she finalized.