Cindy McCain, the executive director of the Rome-based World Food Program, met with some of her staff online, taking questions and hearing comments from an office in Jordan regarding her recent responses to the Israel-Hamas conflict and the agency’s work and her role in the crisis.
In videos and emails seen by PassBlue, McCain held the meeting on Nov. 30 with select agency members in the Middle East, responding to a range of criticisms about her actions — perceived or otherwise — amid the conflict in Gaza.
The criticisms included McCain’s participation in the Halifax International Security Forum, held Nov. 17-19 in Nova Scotia, where the annual prize for Leadership in Public Service, named after John McCain, her deceased husband, was presented to the “People of Israel.” (First reported by PassBlue.)
A woman who works for the World Food Program’s Gaza office asked, amid tears at the meeting with McCain, referring to the “unspeakable horrors” the staff had endured: “Where were you? We had neither your presence, nor your action and not even your voice for Gaza.”
To which McCain replied: “I’ve been in this region nonstop since the day this war started. I’ve spent countless days here, countless hours here, dealing with absolutely everything I could to make sure that No. 1 we could get access to El-Arish airport [in Egypt].”
McCain, a high-profile American, was previously the ambassador to the United States mission to UN agencies in Rome. She is also the widow of US Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, who was a presidential candidate and died in 2018. She has been the executive director of the sprawling World Food Program since April 5, 2023.
In the tense, online meeting, McCain said in response to criticism about her participating in the Halifax forum that she attended for her husband’s “legacy.” She also said she was there for Ukraine. (The forum’s agenda featured panel events labeled “Victory in Ukraine.”)
“I was merely there as a woman who was married to my late husband for 40 years and who supports his legacy,” McCain said. “That is all. I remained neutral the entire time.” Yet she was identified in the program as head of the World Food Program.
In further response to McCain’s choice of language around the Gaza conflict and her attendance in Halifax, McCain interrupted and said, raising her voice and becoming emotional: “I will always support the legacy of my husband. No one will ever take that away from me. . . . I will never, I will never, ever, not support my husband.”
After another tense exchange during which McCain and a colleague next to her in the conference room tried to end the meeting, the person expressing the staff’s concern with McCain’s behavior, added: “If you cannot see that the reputation of WFP has been affected, I’m sorry, with all due respect, you’re mistaken. We’re seeing it in the faces of our family members.”
McCain also reportedly didn’t attend the UN’s global minute of silence held on Nov. 13 to honor the at least 100 staffers — all Palestinian — who have been killed in the war since it began on Oct. 7, when Hamas massacred approximately 1,200 people, including children, in southern Israel. In Gaza, the number of people killed is estimated to be 15,000, of which at least 6,000 are children and 4,000 are women.
In the Nov. 30 meeting, McCain denied that she missed the minute of silence, saying: “You’re wrong. I did.”
“I chose to do the minute of silence by the wall,” she added. “Which is the place that I’ve gone every other time I’ve been in there to commemorate and look and think about the people who’ve given their lives to WFP. So I was there. You just didn’t see it, I guess. I’m not sure.”
Her reference to “WFP” people who’ve “given their lives” in the conflict may be misleading: the people who have been killed and memorialized by the UN worked for the organization’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa).
WFP sources also told PassBlue that they didn’t know what “wall” McCain was referring to in her reply.
(PassBlue was unable to confirm whether McCain participated in the WFP’s parallel memorial on Nov. 13 in Rome. Repeated attempts to verify this information with agency spokespeople have gone unanswered. On Dec. 1, Stéphane Dujarric, the UN’s spokesperson, said: “Cindy McCain has been doing an excellent job and obviously has the full backing of the Secretary-General. I think both her leadership and what WFP has been doing in Gaza has been exemplary. The WFP is, second to UNRWA, is the most active, if I’m not mistaken, agency in Gaza.”)
She also fielded comments about her not signing an interagency-committee statement on Nov. 5, publicly calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” on “the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” She said she did “sign the ceasefire. My name is on there.” She is listed as a signatory as executive director of the World Food Program.
Another criticism in the meeting from personnel focused on why McCain has not called “the use of starvation as a weapon of war” in the Gaza conflict. The Israeli government forced a siege on the enclave days after the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7. Until recently, the blockade stopped the constant flow of food, fuel, medicine and other lifesaving essentials into the strip, depriving civilians caught in the middle of the bombardment by Israel Defense Forces intent on killing Hamas.
(A humanitarian pause entered its seventh consecutive day on Nov. 30, enabling “a major increase in the delivery of basic supplies into and across Gaza, primarily by the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies and UN agencies,” the UN said on Nov. 30. But the level of aid “remains completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of more than two million people,” Secretary-General António Guterres has said.)
Answering the question about the use of starvation as a weapon of war and other “tough” issues, McCain said that it was an issue that the UN hasn’t addressed.
“It is also something that we as a [WFP] organization are not going to address right now. Believe me, I understand how difficult this is. But using those words, are words, that the UN as a whole have not addressed yet and will not use,” she said.
In response to her remarks, some staff members walked out of the online session, according to the videos watched by PassBlue.
Additionally, a statement sent to McCain by some agency personnel boycotting her Nov. 30 meeting and seen by PassBlue raises similar issues to the online conference. It also touches on related matters, including McCain’s not visiting Gaza so far. The statement was submitted “on behalf of all countries in the region to the Executive Director. . . .”
It reads, in part: “In solidarity with the Palestine country office: We, the WFP staff from the Palestine Country Office, the Syria Country Office, the Jordan Country Office, the Egypt Country Office, and the Regional Bureau, unequivocally refuse to attend the meeting with the Executive Director [on Nov. 30] as we question the neutrality of WFP leadership in addressing the humanitarian needs in the country.
We are also extremely concerned about our own security and safety in the field due to the ED’s recent external and internal engagements. The incidents below were perceived by the staff and the media in the region as WFP siding with one party in the current war in Gaza.”
The statement additionally refers to McCain’s perceived lack of support for agency staff, saying: “We also express great concern for the limited WFP leadership in engaging with other UN agencies to show support for the field staff. A question should be raised to the ED [executive director], inquiring about the reasons for not extending support to the staff, in contrast to the leadership of other organizations that have visited Gaza and showed solidarity during the crisis, such as:
The UNRWA Commissioner General, Mr Philippe Lazzarini several times during the crisis. The UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell visited Gaza on 14th November. Her Excellency, Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, arrived on 26th November to oversee the delivery of Qatari aid packages.”
It concludes: “The actions or inactions mentioned above regarding the ED indicate minimal level of support for the WFP staff at the forefront of Palestine operation in such a critical period, while UN buildings are being attacked and UN staff are being killed. Consequently, we find it necessary to withhold a meeting with the ED until she publicly declares her impartial position from the conflict, her respect to the WFP code of conduct, condemn the killing of our colleagues from the UN staff in Gaza, and condemn the weaponization of hunger, using the same challenges where she conveyed her partial position.”
This story was updated on Dec. 1, 2023, to include the response from the UN’s spokesperson about the controversy over McCain.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on WFP staff reaction to Cindy McCain?
Anastasiia Carrier is a Detroit-based freelance reporter. She earned an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and her work has appeared in Politico Magazine, The Wire China and The Radcliffe Magazine.
Mrs McCain has never held a leadership role of this kind and is completely un-fit for purpose. She is looking to forward her personal agenda and, quite clearly, couldn’t care less about the lives of Palestinians, as neither did her husband of Syrians.
McCain was quite ordinary US bandit. I don’t understand why Mrs. McCain cares about his “legacy” so much.
She should be made to apologise and step down from this position. She has lost the confidence of the men and women she leads. Very sad, indeed.
Cindy could remain married to her late husband, but she has lost credibility regarding her true commitment to the UN rules, principles and regulations. By so doing the trust between her and her staff is broken and she has putting herself and her staff at risk of vengeance by countries which see her as an active supporter of Israël. She is rejected by her own WFP staff and also the UN staff of other Organisations who have serious conviction of her lack of neutrality in this situation of conflict between Israel and Palestina. She should resign or be fired by the UN Secretary General.