Argentina case threatens to criminalize criticism of Israel

The furor erupted on 17 May 2009 when violence broke out between protesters and supporters of Israel at a city center event organized by the City of Buenos Aires to mark Israel's 61st anniversary, resulting in the arrest and detention of the protesters. The Israeli ambassador and the country's major Jewish organizations immediately denounced the incident as an "anti-Semitic attack," an interpretation repeated with little reflection, amid much sensationalism, by almost all of the media in Argentina.