Benjamin Davis, a 62-year-old director at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, the UN agency based in Rome that leads global efforts on hunger and agriculture), says his contract was not renewed after 26 years because his team published a brief and held a seminar on hunger in Gaza and because he joined weekly silent vigils for those killed. FAO director general Qu Dongyu said publicly that he would fire more staff he accused of political activism and that human rights belonged to a Geneva-based agency, while Davis, who has filed an appeal seeking reinstatement, called silence on starvation "complicity". The FAO did not respond to a request for comment, and the case raises questions about how far UN staff may speak on humanitarian issues under international civil service rules.