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 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.
Davis was also criticised for a report he worked on about food availability in Gaza and humanitarian law, published in May. He was speaking in public comments made at the start of a filmed session on forestry. FAO did not respond to an request for comment.
Asked if he thought the director-general’s comments were about him, Davis said “absolutely”. Hundreds of people attended the moments of silence at their height, while now there are only 30 to 40 people coming on a weekly basis, he said. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed over 74,000 people since October 2023, and at least 1,431 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the so-called ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was agreed upon in October 2025.
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