Merkel image edited out of Haredi paper

The ultra-Orthodox Israeli daily “HaMevaser” excised the images of prominent female heads of state, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a Monday photo accompanying the paper’s coverage of the Paris solidarity rally following last week’s terror attacks.

In the original photo, world leaders were seen flanking French President François Hollande, among them Merkel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The photograph was cropped to exclude Hidalgo and Thorning-Schmidt, while Merkel, who was standing between Hollande and Abbas, was Photoshopped out of the picture. Abbas was made to appear as if he were standing beside Hollande, while a visible retouch is seen underneath his feet, an attempt to erase a light grey cement line present in the original image.

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Images of women are generally not displayed in ultra-Orthodox publications due to modesty concerns.

HaMevaser was established in 2009 by MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism party, and is circulated in Hebrew throughout the ultra-Orthodox Jewish public in Israel.

(Click to enlarge) Original photo released by the Government Press office, showing French president Francois Hollande flanked by world leaders during a solidarity march on January 11, 2015, following a string of terror attacks in Paris on January 7 and 9.
(Photo credit: Haim Zach / GPO)

(Click to enlarge) In this screen capture of an article in Haredi daily ‘HaMevaser,’ female world leaders are discernibly edited out of the image. (photo credit: screen capture / HaMevaser, January 11, 2015)