FAO official says he lost his job for criticising Israeli policies in Gaza

FAO director said he was informed his contract would not be renewed because of allegedly breaching impartiality rules.

A senior UN agency director has said that he lost his job because he criticised Israeli policies in Gaza.

Ben Davis, who had been Director of Rural Transformation and Gender Equality at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told AFP news agency on Wednesday that he was informed in July that his contract would not be renewed because he had allegedly breached impartiality rules.

He said that he was accused of organising weekly silent protests at the Rome-based organisation.

“They accused me of organising these moments of silence on the situation of starvation and famine in Gaza,” Davis said.

Davis was also criticised for a report he worked on about food availability in Gaza and humanitarian law, published in May.

“We were told to take it down,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to make any references to humanitarian law.”

‘Game of human rights’

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu appeared to warn FAO staff on Tuesday that “we don’t allow you to play the game here of human rights”.

He was speaking in public comments made at the start of a filmed session on forestry.

“Of course, human rights is very important, but we have the human rights agency in Geneva,” he added. “If you want to take care, go there.

“That’s why some senior members play the political game here, I fire him … You should follow the FAO constitution … You are against staff regulations … But I’m a very soft person, I didn’t fire that many,” he said.

“I will fire more people if they are against the law,” he added.

FAO did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Asked if he thought the director-general’s comments were about him, Davis said “absolutely”.

“He has already scolded me in public in the past for being too political.”

Davis also said he was “concerned” about the director-general’s comments on firing more people.

Hundreds of people attended the moments of silence at their height, while now there are only ۳۰ to ۴۰ people coming on a weekly basis, he said.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed over ۷۴,۰۰۰ people since October ۲۰۲۳, and at least ۱,۴۳۱ Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the so-called ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was agreed upon in October ۲۰۲۵.