The Foreign Press Association is deeply disappointed that the Israeli Supreme Court has once again postponed ruling on our petition for free, independent press access to Gaza.

All the more concerning is that the court appears to have been swayed by the state’s classified security arguments, which were presented behind closed doors and without the presence of the FPA’s attorneys. This secretive process offers no opportunity for us to rebut these arguments and clears the way for the continued arbitrary and open-ended closure of Gaza to foreign journalists.

As our attorneys argued in court on Monday, there are no security arguments that justify Israel’s blanket ban on allowing foreign journalists independent access to Gaza at a time when humanitarian aid workers and other officials are being allowed into Gaza. The public’s right to know should not be reduced to an afterthought.

The FPA urges the court to reconsider its decision and stresses the urgency of free, independent access to Gaza at a time of enormous change and massive implications for the hundreds of millions of readers, viewers and listeners served by the FPA’s journalists.

Statement attributed to the board of The Foreign Press Association