A Belgian classical music festival has axed a leading German orchestra from its programme over concerns about its Israeli conductor, drawing accusations of antisemitism from Berlin.

Flanders Festival Ghent announced it had cancelled a concert by the Munich Philharmonic scheduled for 18 September, citing insufficient clarity over Lahav Shani’s attitude to the Israeli government.

Shani, who is the music director of the Israel Philharmonic, was expected to lead the concert even though he does not officially take up his role as chief conductor of the German orchestra until next year.

The Ghent festival, an annual event drawing about 50,000 visitors to the capital of East Flanders, said in a statement on its website on Wednesday that it had made the decision to cancel the concert “on the basis of our deepest conviction that music should be a source of connection and reconciliation”.

“Lahav Shani has spoken out in favour of peace and reconciliation several times in the past, but in the light of his role as the chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, we are unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude to the genocidal regime,” the statement said, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which says the Gaza war is one of self-defence.

The festival said the cancellation was in line with calls from elsewhere in the local cultural sector “to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime [the Israeli government]”.

However, Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s foreign minister, distanced himself from the cancellation, describing it as “excessive”.

Wolfram Weimer, Germany’s culture and media commissioner, called Ghent’s decision “a disgrace for Europe” that set a “dangerous precedent”. He added: “That is naked antisemitism and an attack on the basics of our culture.”

Germany, which is a close ally of Israel, has distanced itself from Netanyahu’s government in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Florian Wiegand, the artistic director of the Munich Philharmonic, said: “We are stunned that a festival in Belgium, in the heart of Europe, the main seat of the European Union, has made such an unimaginable decision.”

Shani, who at 36 will become the Munich orchestra’s youngest ever director, has not commented on the situation.

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In an interview last year with the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, he said he was proud to represent Israeli culture across the world but saw himself as an ambassador of the state of Israel and not the government.

In an op-ed for Süddeutsche Zeitung, Shani praised the German government for its support of the state of Israel after the 7 October attack but also criticised Netanyahu’s judicial reforms and said that “in the last few years Israel has no longer made enough effort to reach a solution of the conflict [with Palestine]”.

The row echoes the controversy of Shani’s predecessor at the orchestra, Russia’s Valery Gergiev. Gergiev was sacked in 2022 after he failed to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine or distance himself from his close friend and supporter, Vladimir Putin.

One of four principal orchestras in the Bavarian state capital, the Munich Philharmonic is considered one of the most important in the world and performed the premieres of Gustav Mahler’s fourth and eighth symphonies under the baton of the composer himself.