A lawyer in Israel is not a luxury, but a guide through the bureaucratic hell that is the state apparatus. However, it’s hard to call it an apparatus because none of the circles of hell exchange information with any other, ordinary demons have far more authority than their superiors, and sinners can appeal to the law – earthly or heavenly – as much as they like, but in every district office of hell, there is an ‘internal instruction’ that contradicts each law. (And then another one that contradicts the previous one.) In the end, laws come and go with each government, but the demons stay at their cauldrons for generations. Perhaps this system was invented by the founding fathers themselves to prevent the usurpation of power in the future. Try to build totalitarianism in a country where every street-level bureaucrat is, at heart, an anarcho-syndicalist. Therefore, going to court in Israel is not a challenge to the state, but a normal way to start a dialogue with it. It’s all like at the market: if you don’t bargain, you don’t respect. If you don’t sue, it means you don’t acknowledge. So an Israeli lawyer is always a bit more than just a lawyer. He combines the skills of Virgil, a stalker, a dramatic actor, a social worker, an ethnographer, and a psychotherapist. At least, a good lawyer does. I was incredibly lucky with my lawyer. With Alex Zernopolsky, we not only won the case. I found thirty new research topics – so fascinating was the structure of the Israeli bureaucracy ‘from the inside’. Now we will write in co-authorship.
