How Was the Israeli Faculty Petition Database Verified?

Olam verified 2,844 Israeli faculty members by cross-checking five archived petition rosters against official university faculty directories at eight research institutions. Every name required a public source, institutional affiliation, and explicit identification. 1,434 of 1,434 extracted names matched to a directory record, a 100% match rate, with all decisions documented below for independent reproduction.

This document is the full methodology behind Who Signed? An Audit of Political Petition Participation Among Israeli University Faculty. Every methodological decision is disclosed so journalists, researchers, and readers can evaluate the study's rigor independently.

What Did This Audit Actually Measure?

The audit measured Israeli university faculty members who publicly signed political petitions containing explicit claims about Israel and Palestinian governance between October 2024 and August 2026. It did not measure classroom curriculum, private political views, organizational membership, social media activity, or op-ed publication.

Population: 2,844 faculty members across 8 leading Israeli research universities (2,040 at those 8 institutions), plus 804 additional faculty at smaller colleges captured through petition rosters.

Which Universities Were Included and Why?

Eight universities were selected based on size, research intensity, and institutional diversity.

Ariel University, Reichman University, Sapir Academic College, Tel Hai Academic College, Shenkar College, and community colleges were not specifically sampled. Some faculty from these schools appear because they were captured through petition rosters directly.

Missing institutions skew toward religious or politically conservative faculty. Their inclusion would likely lower the overall participation rate below 50.4%. The published figure likely overestimates participation across all of Israeli academia.

Where Did the Petition Data Come From?

Five petition rosters supplied the raw names, all archived via Archive.org, direct URL preservation, and screenshots.

Each signer was then cross-checked against their institution's official online faculty directory. Directories were accessed between January and August 2026, and department, rank, and affiliation data were pulled directly from them.

What Made a Name Count as a Verified Signer?

A faculty member was included only if all five conditions held: the petition was publicly posted (not shared privately), the roster is source-linked and archived, the signer was named explicitly rather than by initials or pseudonym, the signer was institutionally affiliated with an audited university, and the petition itself was politically explicit about Israel or Palestinian governance policy.

Who Got Excluded and Why?

Faculty were excluded for six reasons: signing only a private letter or email chain, unclear or unverifiable institutional affiliation, ambiguous identification (initials, pseudonym, or an unverifiable common name), graduate-student status (postdocs with faculty titles were kept), non-academic staff appearing on a roster, or a petition limited to general humanitarian language without specific political claims about Israel.

How Was Each Name Verified Against a University Directory?

Verification ran five steps per name: search the university directory for an exact match, cross-reference department and rank, confirm active, emeritus, or recently departed status, record title where available, and flag edge cases such as joint or visiting appointments for separate review. Every one of the 1,434 extracted names matched to at least one institution, a 100% match rate.

How Were Edge Cases Like Emeritus or Joint Appointments Handled?

Faculty with joint appointments were recorded at their primary institutional affiliation. Visiting scholars were included only if they claimed academic affiliation at the time of signing. Emeritus faculty were included if they claimed institutional affiliation when they signed; roughly 6% of signers are identified as emeritus, showing that political engagement continues past active employment. Adjunct faculty were included only if listed in official university records, not if they were occasional contractors. Postdoctoral researchers were included only if they held a faculty title such as Lecturer or Senior Lecturer.

How Were Duplicate Signers Removed?

The five petition rosters produced 1,452 raw entries (1,387 + 28 + 20 + 8 + 9). Cross-referencing found 18 individuals who appeared on two or more rosters, the "multiple signers" documented in the study, leaving a final unique count of 1,434 individuals. Exact name matches were flagged automatically; near-matches from Hebrew-to-English transliteration variants were reviewed manually. No automated fuzzy-matching was used without a manual check.

How Complete Is the Department and Title Data?

Specific department data exists for 1,516 of 2,844 records (53%); the remaining 1,328 show only institutional affiliation. Title data exists for 1,174 of 1,434 signers (82%): 755 listed as Prof. (full professor) and 419 as Dr. The remaining 260 signers (18%) lack title data and are included in aggregate counts but excluded from rank-specific analysis.

How Were Petitions Categorized?

Petitions were sorted into three categories, reported separately rather than merged. Category A, war crime framing, includes petitions explicitly calling Israel's Gaza campaign a war crime, led by the Black Flag Action Group petition (May 2025), which called the campaign "a horrifying litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity." Category B, humanitarian and Gaza-focused, covers petitions like Scientists for Gaza (August 2025) that avoid war-crime language. Category C, other political petitions, covers calls for sanctions or academic boycotts, including the October 2024 Sanctions petition, the International Law Scholars letter, and the Artists/Intellectuals petition.

What Are the Known Limitations of This Audit?

Six limitations apply. The eight-university sample is not random and likely overestimates participation because excluded institutions skew more conservative. Petition rosters as published online may be incomplete. The audit is a snapshot as of August 2026; later signatures are not captured. 47% of records lack specific department data. 18% of signers lack title data. Signing a petition documents one act of political expression, not a signer's complete views or motivations.

How Can Someone Request a Correction?

Anyone listed in the database can request removal or correction on three grounds: a factual error in name, institution, or petition attribution; no affiliation with any audited institution at the time of signing; or documented evidence that a name appeared on a roster in error. Requests go to corrections@olam.business, undergo independent verification against the original petition source, and receive a response within 30 days. Confirmed errors result in removal and a public correction note.

Can This Methodology Be Reproduced?

Yes. Any researcher with access to the same petition rosters and university faculty directories can replicate the process, verify individual records, and reach comparable results. The inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, deduplication process, and edge-case decisions are fully documented above, using no proprietary tools or undisclosed data sources.

Related Olam Research

Who Signed? (Flagship study)

Who Teaches Judaism in America? (Companion study)

Top 25 Departments by Petition Participation

How Israeli and American Academic Petition Participation Compare

Ronn Torossian is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. He is the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.