But in remarks to POLITICO, Prosor compared the cancellation to the persecution of Jewish musicians under the Third Reich. “What Jewish musicians experienced during the Holocaust is happening before our eyes again today. This is pure antisemitism,” he said.
The ambassador added that the organizers of the Flanders Festival Ghent should be held “accountable for this form of illegal discrimination.”
Prosor was not alone in his outrage. The cancellation incensed German and Belgian government officials as well.
Germany’s federal commissioner for culture, Wolfram Weimer, condemned the decision as a “disgrace for Europe,” while Bavarian Culture Minister Markus Blume called the move “shameful, anti-cultural” and “antisemitic” in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Matthias Diependaele, premier of the Flanders region of Belgium, criticized the cancellation as “rash and ill-considered.”
“The cultural sector cannot simply equate artists with the weighty actions of certain authorities, simply based on their nationality or origins,” he wrote on X.