Merkel, Netanyahu and the awkward shadow moustache

In this video-grab, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gesture during a joint press conference. Photo / AFP

Some images are so ridiculous, they simply cannot be faked.

One such golden example - of an actual picture taken in actual time and not edited - came as Jerusalem Post photographer Marc Israel Sellem snapped away during a joint press conference held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier today.

He managed to capture Netanyahu mid-catalogue point, as he gestured across the stage.

Unfortunately for the two leaders, the resultant shadow gave Merkel a faux moustache not unlike that of another, far less reputed, German leader - Adolf Hitler.

This version of the picture is currently doing the viral rounds on the internet, and has been picked up by news sites the world over.

The Jerusalem Post, however, is not so keen to run the prints - despite a number of their journalists sharing the image themselves on Twitter.

"Just want to clarify that none of the higher-ups at JPost are pushing that picture. It's not on our site and won't be in the newspaper," reporter Lahav Harkov tweeted.

"@cymruisrael It's a real picture, not photoshopped. Obviously this wasn't Netanyahu's intention," she wrote to one user in a second post.

In more serious news, the conference was arranged to discuss the boycotts on Israeli goods produced in Israeli Settlements in the West Bank - a notion Merkel said she did not support, but said that Germany was obliged, as a member of the European Union, to comply with.

Merkel also declared Iran to be a potential threat to Israel and other European countries, but refused to endorse Netanyahu's demands for Tehran to abandon all nuclear projects under negotiated deals with other world powers.

- UK Independent