By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
The father of an American who was killed by Israel in Gaza while working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and told him the US should cut military aid to Israel to end the slaughter in Gaza.
Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old dual US-Canadian citizen, was killed alongside six other WCK workers while traveling along a route pre-approved by the Israeli military. He leaves behind a one-year-old son, Jasper Flickinger, and his partner, Sandy Leclerc.
“If the United States threatened to suspend aid to Israel, maybe my son would be alive today,” Jacob’s father, John Flickinger, told The Associated Press. “I’m hopeful that this is the last straw, that the United States will suspend aid and will take meaningful action to leverage change in the way Israel is conducting this war.”
Israel said it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others over the slaughter of the aid workers and is still claiming the attack was an accident. But they were killed in three separate drone strikes that targeted three cars that were clearly marked with the WCK logo.
Jacob’s mother, Sylvia Labrecque, told BBC that the idea the killing was an accident is a “joke.” Labrecque described Jacob, who was in the Canadian military for 11 years, as a “good human being” who “was extremely devoted to his work and his family.”
José Andrés, founder of the WCK and a celebrity chef, said in an interview over the weekend that Israel was waging a “war against humanity.” Back in October, Andrés defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza, but now he has harsh words for the campaign.
“This is not anymore about the seven men and women of World Central Kitchen that perished on this unfortunate event. This is happening for way too long. It’s been six months of targeting anything that seems moves,” Andrés said. “This doesn’t seem a war against terror. This doesn’t seem anymore a war about defending Israel. This really, at this point, seems it’s a war against humanity itself.”
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Dave DeCamp
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.