OneVoice Movement

The organization faced significant pressure from Members of Congress after it used federal taxpayer dollars to oppose then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election campaign in 2015. ²

Background

In 1994, entrepreneur Dan Lubetsky founded Peaceworks after years of study into the potential of joint business ventures to encourage peace between Israelis and Palestinians. ³ PeaceWorks began as a “not-only-for-profit” business model, bringing together Israeli and Palestine businesses to create new products. PeaceWorks’s main venture was a line of pesto and tapenade spreads sold under the brand name Meditalia, which donates 5 percent of its proceeds to the OneVoice Movement. ⁴

In 2002, Lubetsky and PeaceWorks Foundation launched the OneVoice Movement as a platform for Israelis and Palestinians to lobby their lawmakers for a peaceful two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. ⁵ Since OneVoice launched, Lubetsky has launched other businesses, most notably KIND Snacks. The company has sold millions of KIND bars and was acquired by Mars Inc. for $5 billion in 2020. ⁶

As of January 2024, OneVoice operates in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. It’s local partner in Israel, Darkenu, claims to have 400,000 active supporters and to be the largest non-partisan civil society movement in Israel. Darkenu advocates for a negotiated solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and an Israeli government that promotes social justice and opposes racism. ⁷

OneVoice Movement’s local affiliate in Palestine, Zimam as of January 2024, has called for an end to the “occupation” of Palestine and supporting an independent Palestinian state. ⁸

In response to the Gaza attacks of October 2023, Darkenu and Zimam have worked to provide food and shelter for those affected by violence, and have condemned the actions of Hamas and of the Israeli government. ⁸

From 2014 to 2023, Mara Lee Durrell worked as CEO; Will Schneider was named interim CEO upon Durrell’s departure. ⁹

Activities

Darkenu’s Field and Activism Department conducts voter registration drives and organizes protests of Israeli government policies. In June 2020, it organized a large rally in Tel Aviv to oppose the government’s annexation of the Jordan Valley and sent activists all over the country to strengthen smaller, local protests. In 2020, it also set up a memorial to the Israeli victims of COVID-19 near Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence, decrying his handling of the pandemic. ¹⁰ Darkenu also operates Internet TV channel DemocraTV, which is heavily critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. Since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out in October 2023, the channel has criticized actions of West Bank settlers and the government’s handling of negotiations with Hamas over the return of kidnapped Israelis. ¹¹

Zimam runs training programs for Palestinian youth in social media content creation, leadership, and policy development analysis. ¹¹ Because freedom of speech is limited in the Palestinian territories (a 2018 survey found that a majority of Palestinians were afraid to publicly criticize the government) Zimam’s programs also focus on creating a “safe space” for dialogue. ¹²

2015 Israeli Election

OneVoice’s local partner in Israel Darkenu was accused of using taxpayer to oppose the 2015 re-election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ² In 2014, OneVoice received more than $300,000 in grants from the U.S. State Department to support peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a 14-month grant period. OneVoice used the funds to expand its social media presence, create a voter database, and hire Democratic consulting firm 270 Strategies to train their activists in grassroots outreach. ²

However, OneVoice courted controversy by using those State Department-funded resources to support “Victory 15” or V15, a center-left effort to oust then Prime Minister Netanyahu in the 2015 Israeli elections. ²

A bipartisan investigation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations began in February 2015, and found that OneVoice was transparent with the State Department in its intentions to use grant-funded resources in political activity. However, the investigation found numerous lapses in vetting and oversight of the grant by State Department officials. During V15, in response to internal concerns that the PeaceWorks 501(c)(3) in fact was inappropriately funding political activity, PeaceWorks founded a 501(c)(4), PeaceWorks Action. ¹³

Leadership

Dan Lubetsky is the founder of PeaceWorks, OneVoice, and Kind Healthy Snacks. He founded PeaceWorks in 1994, after failed negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinians. Lubetsky is also founder of Feed the Truth, a left-of-center grantmaking and political advocacy group that focuses on food policy. Advisors to Feed the Truth include the former executive director of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” Program and the co-founder of the Center for Science in the Public Interest advocacy group. Lubetsky started the organization in 2017 with a $5 million donation, pledging an additional $20 million over ten years. ¹⁴ In 2024, Forbes estimated Lubetsky’s net worth at $2.1 billion. ¹⁵

Will Schneider is the interim CEO of the PeaceWorks Foundation and the OneVoice Movement. He previously served as director of fundraising for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a Jewish grantmaking organization, as well as the Slingshot Fund. ¹⁶

Mara Lee Durrell was CEO of OneVoice and Peaceworks from 2016 to May 2023, following a role in the Obama administration’s Department of Commerce and several years working for Congressional Democrats. ¹⁷

OneVoice is governed by the PeaceWorks Foundation Board in the U.S. and a separate OneVoice board in Europe. In the United States, Jeffrey R. Solomon and Lois Perelson-Gross co-chair the board. Solomon is senior advisor for Chasbro Investments, the personal offices of Charles Bronfman, and previously worked as president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. He has an extensive background in the Jewish philanthropy space. Lois Perelson-Gross is a former vice president at Goldman Sachs, but has since pursued a career in medicine and ministry. She works in the Geriatrics and Palliative Care Department at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. ¹⁸

Financials

PeaceWorks Network Foundation reported $851,876 in revenue in 2022, a relatively low number compared to $3,141,450 in 2021 and $14,196,958 in 2020. ¹⁹ It has also benefited from several of the most prominent grantmaking organizations on the left. The Hewlett Foundation, a left-of-center grantmaking organization, provided $85,000 between 2004 and 2006. ²⁰ The Ford Foundation, a left-of-center foundation that was the largest in the U.S. for decades, gave $300,000 in 2007. ²¹ It also received $183,000 in 2021 from the Open Society Foundations, a major sponsor of left-wing causes founded by George Soros. ²²