New research by Dr. Jehad Alshwaikh explores role of mathematicians and mathematics in the context of Israeli occupation

Dr. Jehad Alshwaikh, professor at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, published a new paper under the title “The Racial Role of Mathematicians and Mathematics in Maintaining the Israeli Military Occupation” in the Educational Studies in Mathematics journal.

The paper focuses on the role of mathematics and Israeli mathematicians in serving the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, since 1967. It analyzes recently de-classified Israeli archival documents from the period 1967–1969, including minutes of ministerial meetings that addreassed how to control the newly conquered people and land as discussed by Shafer Raviv as well as mathematical formulas created 40 years later as part of an Israeli policy to restrict food supplies to the Gaza Strip. It sheds light on the way in which mathematicians and mathematics can be employed to maintain and justify a racialized system of control. Drawing on Bonilla-Silva’s racialized social systems approach, the essay argues that mathematics and mathematicians professionalize and legitimize the dominant racial discourse in the Israeli military which, in turn, shapes the social and racial discourse in the Israeli society that privileges Israeli Jews over Palestinians.

With a 2020 impact factor of 2.402, the Educational Studies in Mathematics is considered one of the most important journals in the field at the international level.

To read the research paper, please click here.