D’Haese threatens with exit from the board of the Ghent Festival of Flanders if Israeli conductor is not welcome
The Ghent Festival decided to cancel the concert of the Münchner Philharmoniker with the Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, planned on September 18 in the Sint-Baafskathedral. Because there was commotion because of its presence, the organization asked the conductor’s entourage in advance to explicitly condemn the genocide in Gaza, but the question arose on a Njet. Pro-Palestinian movements had previously announced that they would protest, on which the organization intervened and canceled. This was followed by a storm of reactions, including from Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA), who was going to shake hands with the conductor this weekend himself. The festival was accused of acting “anti -Semitic”, but on the other hand the argument came that a “cultural boycott” could only be totally.
On Friday, Jan Briers, chairman of the Gent Festival of Flanders, already understood that the cancellation could possibly be reversed. On Monday evening the board would sit together again. If the board “makes a wrong decision” for him, D’Haese, “he will take full responsibility and resign them as a member of the board of directors”.
“It must be me from the heart: it is both incomprehensible and unforgivable that the board of Ghent Festival of Flanders has canceled the Münchner Philharmoniker, because of the identity card of his conductor. I distance myself from the communication of Jan Briers, who, in my opinion, have reflected the members of the Board of the Board of the Board of the Council reproduces, “says D’Haese in a press release.
After which the N-VA person emphasizes that he cannot support the decision. “As a board of directors, we have not been solid and incompletely informed in this decision, but I should have watched better,” D’Haese adds. “Excluding someone based on his or her nationality is pure racism.” He also calls on colleagues who do not want to be “complicit” in “this flagrant act of racism” to do the same. “And certainly the chairman, who bears a crushing responsibility here.”
