Orthodox Israeli newspaper airbrushes female world leaders out of #JeSuisCharlie march photographs

• German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, one of the woman digitally removed
• Paris Mayor and Danish Prime Minister also edited out by The Announcer
• Allegedly altered its front page so as not to offend 'ultra-orthodox' readers
• Israeli newspaper says the women were removed for 'reasons of modesty'
• They were among 40 world leaders who led a million people through Paris
• 17 innocent people died last week in wave of terror attacks on the city 

An ultra-conservative Jewish newspaper has digitally removed female politicians from an iconic image of world leaders marching through Paris, following last week's terror attacks.

Israel's The Announcer airbrushed out German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo - and cropped the front-page picture to completely exclude 

Danish Prime Minster, Helle Thorning-Shmidt.

It's believed the women were removed from the historic image, taken on January 11, so the newspaper would not offend its highly devout Orthodox readers.

 

Remembrance: The original picture, taken on January 11, shows all three female leaders marching in Paris

Removed: The altered picture on the front page of Israeli newspaper, The Announcer, excludes German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo - while only the hand of Danish Prime Minster Helle Thorning-Shmidt makes the picture.

 

'Airbrushed out': This before and after picture shows how the three women, Helle Thorning-Shmidt (below, left), Anne Hidalgo (below, centre) and Angela Merkel (below, right) were digitally removed from the photo.

 

Swiss President, Simonetta Sommaru, has been left as a blur behind a crowd of faces, while the EU's foreign affairs and security chief, Frederica Mogherini, was left out entirely.

The women were among 40 world leaders who lined arms with their male counterparts to lead a million people through Paris, in a statement of international solidarity following the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Six of the magazine's journalists, killed by two masked gunmen, were among 17 innocent people to lose their lives in a wave of terror attacks in Paris last week.

French newspapers have blasted The Announcer's 'hypocritical' front page, which they believe disrespects 'the unity of the march'.

One reader in Israel said: 'They are not protecting women from leering men, or men from illicit thoughts.

They are telling their community that women have no place in society outside the home. Very sad and very disturbing.'

Three years ago, another orthodox Jewish newspaper, Di Tzeitung, sparked anger in the US by removing then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, from a 2001 image of the White House situation room during the raid which killed Osama Bin Laden.

While The Announcer - known in Hebrew as HaMevaser - has refused to print the names of female members of the Israeli parliament. 

Solidarity: The female politicians were among 40 world leaders taking part in a march through Paris

It has allegedly defended the removal of Angela Merkel and other women leaders from this week's front page for 'reasons of modesty' and its stance not to depict women in the media.

According to another Israeli publication, Haaretz, removing women from such pictures is nothing new.

They also claim that Israeli parties representing the ultra-orthodox electorate openly ban women from running for the Knesset - and female images are completely absent from media outlets and advertisements aimed at that demographic. 

The photograph's manipulation was first spotted by a regional reporter on the Hebrew news website, Walla, who said: 'The paper didn't blur out Merkel's image or white it out, but completely re-edited the photograph and moved the images of the participants around, so that you could never tell that Merkel was ever there.'

The Announcer was founded by Meir Porush, a former member of the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judiasm party.