A senior official at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Wednesday that his criticism of Israeli policies in Gaza had cost him his job, while the agency's director-general warned his employees against engaging in campaigns of a human rights nature.
Director of the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Ben Davis, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that he was informed in July that his contract would not be renewed after 26 years he spent at the agency, under the pretext of violating the rules of neutrality.
He added: “They accused me of organizing these silent vigils to protest the conditions of starvation and famine in Gaza.” In reference to silent protests organized weekly by employees of the organization headquartered in Rome.
Davis was also criticized for a report he helped prepare on food availability in Gaza and humanitarian law, published in May.
“We were asked to withdraw it,” he said, adding, “We were not allowed to refer to humanitarian law.”
It appeared that FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu issued a warning to employees on Tuesday against engaging in activities or campaigns of a human rights nature within the agency.
His statements came during a public intervention at the beginning of a video session on forests.
He continued: “Human rights are very important, of course, but we have a human rights agency in Geneva. Whoever is interested, go there.”
He added: “If one of the senior officials here engages in political work, I will fire him... You must follow the (FAO) constitution... You are violating employee regulations... But I am a very nice person, and I have not been fired many people.”
He added: “I will expel more people if they break the law.”
The FAO did not respond to a request for comment.
When asked if he thought he was concerned with the Director General’s statements, Davis said: “Absolutely,” explaining: “He rebuked me publicly in the past, as he considered me too involved in politics.”
Davis also expressed his "concern" about the Director-General's statements regarding the expulsion of more people.
He pointed out that hundreds of people participated in silent protests at the height of these movements, while the number of participants is currently limited to between 30 and 40 people per week.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which was launched following the Hamas attack, resulted in the killing of more than 74,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 174,000, according to the Ministry of Health, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.
The movement’s attack on October 7, 2023, on southern Israel, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people.
On Thursday, the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice expressed its intention to annul the decisions of the Central Elections Commission to remove Arab lists of candidates for the upcoming elections, considering them political decisions not based on legal foundations, but at the same time it suggested to the third candidate in the joint list, the head of the National Democratic Rally, Sami Abu Shehadeh, to withdraw his candidacy.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit said: “We held discussions between the judges; Because the statements written by candidate Sami Abu Shehadeh are long and controversial, and cause emotional turmoil.”
He added, “After listening to the arguments of the parties, we conducted consultations and found a difference in opinions, but it appears that the majority of judges support the decision to strike out, with all its consequences.”
Amit continued: “For these reasons, and based on the opinion of all members of the body, we recommend that Mr. Abu Shehadeh think carefully about whether he is committed to his candidacy, or not, which may prevent the issuance of a reasoned ruling in his case.”
The court granted Abu Shehadeh one day to decide his position, and accordingly his party decided to hold a meeting of the political bureau to deliberate on the court’s proposal.
The head of the Joint List, Youssef Jabareen, said that the court’s decision regarding Abu Shehadeh is shameful, and it indicates that the judges are trying to please the extreme right in Israel. A team of lawyers supporting Shehadeh estimated that “the evidence presented against him does not meet the level of proof required judicially,” and that it “does not support the conclusion that he supports the armed struggle.”
An attempt to whiten one's face in front of the West
One of the defense lawyers interpreted the court’s proposal to Abu Shehadeh as an attempt by the court to whitewash its face before the judiciary. In the Western world, there is still respect for the Israeli judiciary despite its continued distance from justice. The Supreme Court is trying to evade making a decision and give Abu Shehadeh the opportunity to withdraw on his own. Thus, you gain in two ways: It escapes Western criticism for its support for a decision restricting freedom of expression, and on the other hand, it wins the approval of the extreme racist right.
However, far-right activists attacked the court, and extremist Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who proposed the deletion of Arab lists, said, “The court takes a merciful approach to Israel’s enemies, and it had to accept the decisions of the Elections Commission, which express the desire and will of the majority of the people in Israel.”
A few hundred Arab citizens demonstrated in front of the court. When Ben Gvir arrived, he started shouting at them: “You are supporters of terrorism.” Get out of here. overland. overland". They responded by chanting: “Fascism will not pass.”
On September 23, the Central Elections Committee approved the cancellation of lists and candidates, but the party committee composed of party representatives in the Knesset does not have the authority to final cancellation, and its decision does not become effective unless approved by the Supreme Court.
The court's panel of nine judges met on Thursday to deliberate on the committee's decisions, and it appeared from the first stage of deliberations that the majority of judges were moving to reject all of those decisions, with the exception of the decision to disbar Abu Shehadeh.
The Adalah Center, which is responsible for defending the Arab lists, confirmed that the delisting decisions are not based on the required evidence and legal standards, calling for their cancellation and allowing the lists and candidates to run in the elections for the 26th Knesset. Abu Shehadeh, who was expelled for writing an article in which he said that “the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, is important and historic,” retracted the article and said that he had made a mistake, and he was supposed to accept his apology.
During his appearance before the court, Abu Shehadeh said that he rejects violence in all its forms, in addition to his opposition to war and occupation. He accused the Israeli government of persecuting Arab citizens, Arab parties and leaders, considering that Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Yair Golan are seeking to impose an Arab leadership that adopts the positions of the Zionist leadership.
Platforms affiliated with armed gangs supported by Israel in Gaza announced that they had carried out kidnappings of people they described as “wanted,” and carried out shootings against those they called “terrorists,” as part of an expanded activity carried out by their members, on Thursday, in several locations in the Gaza Strip.
Armed gangs have been active east of the virtual yellow line (dividing areas controlled by Israel and Hamas) since the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip in October 2025, which Israel violates on an almost daily basis.
Four field sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that these attacks occurred, including the kidnapping of a young Palestinian man at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, by unknown assailants in a vehicle, who fled towards areas where armed gangs and Israeli army forces were deployed, at approximately eight o’clock in the morning local time.
While a second event occurred, in which a young man was shot, while another managed to survive an attempt to kidnap him in the Mawasi Khan Yunis area, south of the Gaza Strip, while an aerial bombardment by an Israeli drone of an empty land occurred during the event, which may indicate that the two events are related.
The gang attacks came after a tense night, during which Israeli warplanes bombed 4 homes and residential buildings on the outskirts of the Shuja'iya and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods, amid artillery shelling and gunfire for the second night in a row.
A field source suggested that the raids may be linked to the movements of members of armed gangs, according to what happened in previous operations of those groups, noting that “these Israeli attacks occurred about 10 days after an explosive device exploded against members of the gangs, which apparently caused deaths and injuries among their ranks.”
The commander of the Gaza Division of the Israeli army, Liron Patito, said that 40 new sites had been established on the Yellow Line and most of the existing tunnels had been destroyed, noting that there were still tunnels inside the Strip, and more were being searched for through technological means.
In the context of field events, 4 Palestinians were injured in gunfire from vehicles and marches in various areas of the south and north of the Gaza Strip, specifically near the yellow line. While it was announced that Musab al-Bilbisi, one of the leaders of the “Jerusalem Brigades,” the armed wing of the “Islamic Jihad” movement, was killed as a result of wounds he sustained two days ago, as a result of a bombing by an Israeli drone in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip. On Wednesday evening, Israel assassinated two Palestinians, whom the Israeli army later said were activists in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.
Hundreds of Gaza City residents mourned the bodies of 105 victims after they were recovered from under the rubble of the Taj residential square in the Yarmouk neighborhood in central Gaza City, about 3 years after Israeli warplanes bombed the area in the first days of the Israeli war on the Strip.
The Israeli attacks caused the destruction of a residential building and its occupants, while there are still missing bodies beneath the area and the building. The “Crown Square” massacre occurred on October 25, 2023, after the area was hit by about 20 bombs, which led to the killing of at least more than 120 Palestinians, including families that were completely erased from the civil registry, such as the Sharaf and Mahlawi families.
Among those who were buried on Thursday were 47 children and 32 women. All the victims were recovered over a period of 17 days by civil defense crews and the Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, amid great difficulties and obstacles that these crews faced in recovering the victims due to the lack of equipment and Israel’s prevention of bringing in any materials to remove the rubble and recover war victims.
