The World Food Program’s Boss Faces Backlash for Attending an Event Honoring Israel

On the “75th anniversary of Israel’s creation, and in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack that resulted in the greatest loss of life to the Jewish people since the Holocaust, it is fitting to present an award that bears Senator McCain’s name,” the award read.

Cindy McCain was nominated by the US government to run the Rome-based World Food Program earlier this year and took office in April. It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, and the US is the top donor. McCain regularly travels in her new role to the world’s toughest places, as did her immediate predecessor, David Beasley, a former governor of South Carolina.

The John McCain award is usually given to “individuals from any country who have demonstrated uncommon leadership in the pursuit of human justice,” according to the Halifax forum.

“Her attendance showed quite a degree of tone-deafness,” said Mukesh Kapila, a former UN official in Sudan, who writes about global health and humanitarian aid, commenting on McCain’s attendance for PassBlue. “It’s an ethical breach of the duty of neutrality. The World Food Program has a responsibility to help people of all sides.”

The internal email circulating among the World Food Program’s staff regarding their boss’s role at the event, seen by PassBlue, says that many personnel “have concerns around the ethics and neutrality of such representation.”

The letter reveals the internal dissent among staff and others connected to the UN going public over the unending devastation of the war on civilians. Affiliated humanitarian institutions are also voicing major concerns over the UN’s perceived inability to demand a ceasefire as Israel says its invasion in Gaza aims to annihilate Hamas.

Unicef staff, for instance, sent their boss, Catherine Russell, a petition, signed by more than 3,800 people, calling for a ceasefire and to investigate Israeli attacks on children, according to Devex. Russell is also an American, having been nominated to the post by the Biden administration. World Food Program staff have also called on McCain to demand a ceasefire.

President Joe Biden has declined to make such a demand, at least publicly. Instead, his administration has been calling for humanitarian “pauses,” to little effect.

Last week, UN independent human rights experts released a statement clamoring for relevant parties to prevent “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. The statement, released by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, pointed to “evidence of increasing genocidal incitement.” The proof included an “overt intent” to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation.”

Last month, in a much-publicized act, a UN human rights official based in New York City said he was stepping down to protest the organization’s inability to stop the “genocide” of Palestinians. His retirement coincided with this step, the UN spokesperson pointed out.

The World Food Program email offers a template that employees can use to send to the agency’s ethics office, requesting clarification on whether McCain’s attendance at the Halifax forum was “appropriate and in line with her role and responsibilities, as well as with WFP guidelines and policies.”

The template offers suggested language for an email to the ethics office: “The Executive Director’s attendance and active participation in this event could compromise WFP’s perceived neutrality by being seen as siding with one party to a conflict.”

Elsewhere is the phrase: “I am extremely concerned that such perception may also lead to increased risk to our personnel, especially in countries in the Middle East.”

The agency couldn’t be reached for a comment by PassBlue’s publishing deadline.

An interagency network of humanitarian leaders also called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza in early November as well as the “immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held hostage.” Among the UN officials who signed the document were McCain and Russell.

In a trip to Egypt in early November, McCain pleaded in a statement that the Rafah border crossing into Gaza be opened more consistently for lifesaving aid to get in.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described Gaza currently as a “never-ending humanitarian nightmare.” In a statement on Sunday, he called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire again, after two Unrwa schools in Gaza were struck by the IDF in less than 24 hours, killing dozens of people, including women and children and breaching international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are also urging Guterres to include Israel in his annual blacklist of countries and terrorist organizations known for killing or injuring children.