Richard Wagner conference disrupted in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (AFP) ― A young man on Tuesday disrupted a conference in Jerusalem on Richard Wagner, considered Hitler’s favorite composer, Haaretz newspaper said on its website.

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra was marking the 200th anniversary of the German composer’s birth with a symposium on his music and whether an unofficial Israeli ban on performances of his work should be upheld.

According to Haaretz, the man burst onto the stage of the Jerusalem theater where the discussion was taking place, singing Israel’s national anthem and hurling insults at delegates and the audience.

A video on Haaretz website shows the young man, who identifies himself as Ran Carmi, comparing one of the delegates to a Nazi collaborator.

Carmi, who was booed by the audience, was removed from the venue by police and the symposium resumed.

Wagner died in 1883, long before the rise of Nazism, but remains a highly controversial figure in the Jewish state.