Fort Wayne activist urges grassroots pressure after recent Palestine trip

Dr. Michael Smith, who said he represents the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace in Fort Wayne, urged members of an Indiana audience to press for change in U.S. policy toward Israel and to develop grassroots ties with Palestinian organizations after a recent trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Smith said he led a group of 18 U.S. activists and met with religious, political and nongovernmental leaders, including Palestinian activists, journalists and organizers. He described repeated closures of sites in Bethlehem, frequent Israeli military incursions in the West Bank and what he called a slow process of “gauzification” of the West Bank — language he used to explain his view that the West Bank is being turned into a condition like Gaza.

"If genocide isn't your red line, you don't have a red line," Smith said, placing the moral obligation to respond to what he described as largescale civilian harm at the center of his talk. He criticized both U.S. political parties and some U.S. churches for what he called bipartisan and institutionalized support for Israeli military actions and urged…