TORONTO – An uncomfortable photo of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference Tuesday has gone viral — for all of the wrong reasons.
The photo, captured by Jerusalem Post photographer Marc Israel Sellem, went viral after unfortunate lighting cast a shadow from Netanyahu’s finger on Merkel’s upper lip, giving the impression she’s sporting a Hitler-style moustache.
The Jerusalem Post initially did not use the photo in its print publication or website but was used on the Facebook page of a sister newspaper where it was shared thousands of times.
Post reporter Lahav Harkov explained on Twitter the image was not Photoshopped but won’t run in the publication.
“I was just trying to find a good place to take pictures of them,” Sellem told the Post. “I positioned myself between Merkel and Netanyahu, and I shot the photographs that I needed for the story.”
In the end, the Post acknowledged the popularity of the photo and published it on its website.
“When I saw the photo on my computer, I thought that it was unique and funny,” Sellem said. “It was not my intention to insult Merkel in any way or to make any kind of Nazi connotation with the photo.”
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