Latest Ban on Palestinian Travel Put Off

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JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli army on Wednesday postponed implementing its latest restriction on Palestinian movement - a ban on riding in cars with Israeli license plates in the West Bank. The decision was announced two days before the restrictions were to go into effect.

The army has cited security reasons for the ban. It said some of the suicide bombers who have entered Israel in recent years were transported by citizens - mostly Israeli Arabs whose Israeli license plates allow them to cross army roadblocks without being checked.

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Human rights groups said the army postponed its decision because of legal difficulties justifying the ban before Israel's Supreme Court.

"The order ... creates a legal codification of something that can be seen as apartheid," said Michael Sfard, legal counsel for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization that filed a court challenge to the measure.

AP