World Food Program workers confront Cindy McCain about the Gaza crisis

As the ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas came to an end Thursday, Cindy McCain, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, met virtually with her staff to address an internal uproar over allegations that she position not used to speak. against the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Many of the global staffers who met were angry at her refusal to publicly call for a ceasefire, and there was growing demand for her removal. In a video of the meeting shared with The New York Times, several employees read statements sharply criticizing Ms. McCain for being tone-deaf to staff concerns.

“You were not here for us – with all due respect, you failed us,” a woman speaking from Gaza on behalf of Palestinian staffers who were not at the meeting said in the video. “WFP’s response was and remains inadequate in light of the scale of the need, and what will you, as the esteemed leader of the United Nations Food Agency, do to rebuild the trust you have broken among your staff? build?”

Staffers also accused Ms. McCain of compromising the organization’s neutrality by attending an international security forum on Nov. 18 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There she was introduced in her official UN capacity and sat next to Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel. An annual public service award named after her late husband, Senator John McCain, was given to the “People of Israel.”

Ms McCain is seen in the footage of the meeting with staff members defends herself and says she signed a joint letter with other UN agency leaders calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

And about her presence at the Halifax forum, she says: “I will always support my husband’s legacy. No one will ever take that away from me.”

Representatives of the World Food Program did not respond to a request for comment. But Stéphane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesman, defended Mrs. McCain to reporters on Friday, saying she was doing “an excellent job” and had the full support of the U.N. leadership.

“I think both her leadership and what WFP has done in Gaza has been exemplary,” Mr. Dujarric said.

Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack and the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, tensions and emotions over the conflict have flared in government agencies, university campuses, and arts and cultural institutions. People from both sides of the divide have said they feel their positions are not validated by leaders, or that they are punished, harassed or “cancelled” for expressing support for either party.

The United Nations has been no exception, with diplomats and officials saying tensions over wording in documents, speeches and comments from senior officials have roiled the organization at every level.

Ms McCain was appointed this year by Secretary General António Guterres to lead the World Food Program, which has more than 23,000 staff worldwide, following her stint as US ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome.

Program staffers who spoke to The Times asked that their names not be published because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters. In interviews and in the video meeting, they accused Mrs. McCain of failing to call Israel out on what they described as the use of food as a weapon in the Gaza Strip, where water and electricity have been cut during Israel’s military offensive.

Senior officials from the World Food Program said this The 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza were on the brink of starvation due to the Israeli siege, the lack of fuel and the inadequate amount of aid entering Gaza.

Mr. Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the program is the second most active U.N. agency distributing essential food, grain and aid to civilians in Gaza, after UNRWA, the agency serving Palestinian refugees.

When Mrs. McCain called the meeting, staff from the program’s offices in Jordan boycotted it. Others staged a symbolic walkout because, they said in interviews, they believed Mrs. McCain was defensive, combative and not listening to their concerns.

For example, staffers criticized Mrs. McCain for not attending a global moment of silence observed by all U.N. agencies and their leaders at their headquarters in memory of the 110 U.N. workers killed in Gaza, the highest number of staffers who died in any conflict in Gaza. the history of the organization.

Many WFP staff described the meeting as a belated attempt at damage control, one that failed to calm their anger and instead reinforced their belief that she should be ousted.

Employees have gone around two public petitions with a total of more than 2,000 signatures calling on Mrs. McCain to “uphold and respect” the UN’s humanitarian values ​​and neutrality mandates, and to use her platform for stronger “advocacy for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and to leverage the WFP’s influence to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war.”

Staffers also wrote emails, seen by The Times, to the UN ethics office asking it to assess whether her presence at the event in Halifax was appropriate and in line with guidelines and policies.