Two can play at that game! Feminist newspaper photoshops male leades from Paris pics
Two can play at that game! Feminist newspaper photoshops male leades from Paris picsScreenshot/Waterford Whispers News

Hareidi newspaper Hamevaser received international attention in recent days after it cropped out the images of female leaders from a photo of the march held in Paris following the terror attacks there.

In its latest issue, the UK's Waterford Whispers News cut out all the men from a photo, in response to Hamevaser's action.

The story was picked up by larger papers as well. Germany's Der Spiegel wrote about the matter, under the headline “Angela Merkel cropped out of Paris mourning photo,” and an Italian paper headline spoke of an “Israeli paper” that deleted women from its photos.

The BBC and the New York Times also called Hamevaser's editor, Binyamin Lipkin, for responses to the story.

Lipkin told Arutz Sheva hat the whole outcry stems from a misunderstanding of the hareidi lifestyle.

"Hamevaser is a hareidi daily that is supposed to provide journalism in accordance with the hareidi reader's lifestyle,” he explained. “The classic hareidi reader does not want to see pictures of women – of any kind – in his newspaper. It does not matter if the photos are large or small, or if they show a head of state or a candy bar vendor in Hod Hasharon. It really doesn't matter.”

"Our duty is to provide the hareidi reader with maximum exposure, in terms of the quality and extent of information, but in accordance with his spiritual way of life. That is what the hareidi reader asks for and that is what he gets from us every morning. We did not hide the information about Merkel's participation in the rally, since we reported about it in the text, which skipped over nothing. But visually – a woman, any woman, is not a visual [the trade term for visual content – ed.] in our newspaper.”

Lipkin said that the secular Israeli press was more ruthless in its attacks than the international press, which simply sought explanations. This, he opined, stems from the same paternalism that brings secular leaders to try and tell the hareidim what subjects their children should study in school, and which advertisements should be placed in the streets in hareidi neighborhoods.

The same press believes in respecting other people's views, as long as they are Arab residents of Israel or those living under the Palestinian Authority, he contended, but the attitude “does not pass the threshold of entry into the hareidi neighborhoods."

Lipkin said that he sees not reason to apologize. “This is the policy in our paper and in all of the other hareidi newspapers, and we will continue it in the future.”