The OneVoice Movement is a global initiative that takes a comprehensive approach to resolving the conflict in Israel and Palestine. OneVoice supports partners on the ground who empower grassroots activists and the next generation of changemakers. OneVoice facilitates programs and advocacy efforts internationally to galvanize and shape a broad coalition‚ spanning different faiths and crossing ideological and political lines.
In Israel and Palestine, as in most conflict zones, extremism overshadows the greater number of moderates who want peace.
PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement aims to amplify the voice of that majority.
Daniel Lubetsky is re-framing the debate from Israel vs. Palestine to moderates vs. extremists.
More than 750,000 people have signed on to support the OneVoice movement.
OneVoice engages and trains political moderates, empowers youth leaders, and works to create more democratic systems so other actors are able to build on this engaged citizenry and more effective political infrastructure to help end the conflict.
Diverse groups of activists are trained in leadership, organizing and modeling democratic values so they are empowered to engage with the political system and assume positions of responsibility in their communities, allowing them to create change within their societies and rally more individuals to join the movement.
Founder, President, OneVoice Movement
In college, Daniel Lubetzky researched Arab-Israeli joint ventures and saw an opportunity to use business to bring stability to the Middle East. He built his own business, PeaceWorks Holdings LLC, a company that is about pursuing both peace and profits. PeaceWorks facilitates joint ventures among neighbors on opposing sides of political or armed conflicts, producing healthy food and snacks that PeaceWorks markets to more than 15,000 U.S. retailers. After the breakdown of the second Camp David Accords, Daniel--also the founder and CEO of KIND Snacks--realized that many people shared his point of view but were not represented in the peace process. He set out to build a movement of moderates who could unite for peace in the Middle East through the OneVoice Movement – the flagship program of the PeaceWorks Foundation, which is a separate entity from PeaceWorks LLC. This mainstream, nationalist, grassroots movement aims to amplify the voice of the majority who wish for peace and prosperity. The movement empowers them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two-state solution, by training individual leaders in conflict resolution, conducting campaigns, and re-framing the debate from Israel vs. Palestine to moderates vs. extreme ideologies.
Daniel no longer leads the organization but continues to serve on its Board of Directors as its President. Mara Lee became Executive Director in 2016, having previously served as International Organizing Director. Jeff Solomon and Lois Perelson-Gross currently serve as co-chairs of the PeaceWorks Foundation, assuming their roles in 2016.
Since its founding in 2002, the PeaceWorks Foundation has helped young people around the world realize that by taking an active role in grassroots activism, they have the power to shape the course of the future for Israel and Palestine. Results can be measured through the success of its United States-based OneVoice programming as well as the work of its Israeli partner Darkenu and Palestinian partner Zimam. In a three-year period defined by five elections, Darkenu ran campaigns across Israel aimed at fostering a sense of civil solidarity, combatting extremist and hateful rhetoric, and boosting voter participation. In addition to training 52 non-partisan civil-society organizations in GOTV to date, Darkenu’s campaigns have engaged its 379,000 registered supporters and reached more than 3 million people, helping to contribute to a nearly 2 percent rise in national turnout. In addition, Zimam engaged more than 7,000 students across the West Bank and Gaza in 182 events and ran an unprecedented public campaign in support of freedom of expression which reached more than 2 million Palestinians and sparked a national debate.
