עריכת-דין מזרחית למען מטרות ציבוריות חברתיות

This research explores a recent phenomenon in Israeli cause lawyering: the emergence of a “new generation” of Mizrahi cause lawyers, who practice law in a variety of settings: non-profits, law clinics, and private practice. Cause lawyering in Israel, which began in the late 1980s, did not acknowledge Mizrahi identity as a substantial component in this form of practice. Similar to other areas of jurisprudence and legal research, the Mizrahi category was overlooked, ignored or denied. However, in the last two decades, the state of Mizrahi studies gained attention in the academy and public discourse, and a central theme within this discourse related to the acclaimed tension between liberalism and Mizrahi identity. This coming of age of Mizrahi studies and discourse has affected the field of Israeli cause lawyering. A new generation of Mizrahi cause lawyers entered legal practice, taking for granted their personal experience of being Mizrahi. Through a series of interviews with 13 leading Mizrahi cause lawyers,we set to understand the interplay between being Mizrahi and practicing as a lawyer for the public interest. We inquired: what does it mean to be a Mizrahi cause lawyer, and in what ways does Mizrahi consciousness manifest itself in their work. All lawyer sexplicitly acknowledged being Mizrahi, and stated in constituted a significant part of their personal and professional identity. Our findings indicate the lawyers’ Mizrahi identification, albeit based in a particular sense of identity, is transformed into auniversal praxis. Most lawyers feel comfortable utilizing a liberal legal system forclients of all groups and identities: Arab Palestinians, Russian immigrants, people in poverty, Ultra orthodox – be they Mizrahim or not. They defy the seeming dichotomy between liberalism and community/group identity, and develop ways to fuse their professional and personal identity. Hence their practice informs and contributes to developing theory about the meaning of Mizrahi identity.