UN food official appeals dismissal after highlighting Gaza hunger crisis

Benjamin Davis spent 26 years at the Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN agency tasked with fighting hunger worldwide. Last week, the organization chose not to renew his contract. Davis, 62, a Spanish-American dual citizen who directed the FAO's rural transformation and gender equality division, says he knows exactly why: his team published a research brief on hunger in Gaza. They held a seminar on the subject. He attended weekly vigils on FAO grounds—moments of silence for those who had died.

The chain of events is documented. In May 2025, Davis's team released a briefing paper describing conditions in Gaza as "a gross violation of the right to food and the unlawful obstruction of humanitarian assistance." The FAO leadership ordered it removed from the website within weeks. That September, Davis organized a seminar on the same topic. The Israeli mission to the FAO filed a complaint. Then came the Thursday vigils in the FAO car park—staff gathering in silence, remembering the dead. On October 23, a woman identifying herself as Israel's permanent representative to the FAO appeared and photographed those attending. When told she could not take pictures, she complained to FAO security that she was being harassed.

Davis says all of this work was approved by FAO management at the time. He was not told it violated any rules. Yet when his contract came up for renewal, the organization's director general, Qu Dongyu, a Chinese agronomist, made his position clear in public remarks. "We are not going to allow you to play the game here of human rights," Qu said. "Of course human rights are very important, but they have a human rights agency in Geneva. If you want to take care of human rights, go there." He went further: "That's why when some senior members play political games here, I fire him." Qu promised to use his remaining time in office to fire more staff members he deemed to be breaking the rules.

The official letter to Davis cited the code of conduct for international civil servants—requirements around "honesty, truthfulness, impartiality and incorruptibility" and restrictions on public statements about "controversial matters." It said Qu was "no longer confident" in Davis's ability to perform his duties. Davis's response was direct. "Silence in the face of suffering and injustice is not neutrality, it is complicity," he wrote. "Shutting down discussion on the starvation of the Palestinian people weakens the reputation of the organisation and the legitimacy of our mandate."

When Davis left the Rome headquarters for the last time, FAO staff stood and applauded. In the hallways afterward, people he had never met stopped him to shake his hand, to say they supported him, to say they were upset. "It's a nice feeling that I'm not alone, that other people are behind me in this," he said. But the applause did not change the outcome. Davis has filed a formal appeal for reinstatement and for the FAO to retract the accusations against him. He said he is not seeking compensation. What he wants is his job back and a clear record.

The dismissal raises a question about what a UN agency is supposed to do when confronted with evidence of mass hunger. The FAO's own slogan is "Leave no one behind." Davis pointed to this contradiction directly. "We're surely an organisation which is based on human rights, right?" he asked. The organization has not responded to requests for comment. Qu's remarks about firing more staff members for political activism suggest the answer the FAO leadership has chosen to give.