Agency Report –
The festival justified the cancellation of the concert, scheduled for September 18, by noting that Shani, who was born in Tel Aviv, also serves as music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Organizers said on their website this week that there was not “sufficient clarity” about Shani’s stance toward the “genocidal regime” in Israel, and so the musicians were uninvited.
The Munich Philharmonic, city officials and German ambassador to Belgium have expressed outrage over the cancellation.
“The decision and its reasoning are not comprehensible,” Ambassador Martin Kotthaus wrote on social media on Thursday.
The embassy spokeswoman said that the collaboration with the festival had mainly consisted of promoting the concerts on social media.
