The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli government has sent an official letter to Reuters CEO Tom Glocer about the photo cropping exposed at LGF: Gov’t disturbed by cropped photos.

A letter was sent to Reuters chief Tom Glocer on Monday expressing the “grave concern of the government of Israel” over the cropping of photographs taken from the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship last week by Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs MK Yuli Edelstein.

The photos, which were published on Sunday in the Turkish Hurriyet daily, showed images of the commandos, their fatigues stained with blood, subdued by passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara ship but excluded the knives held by the aid activists.

At the popular blog LittleGreenFootballs.com, which initially took note of the missing knife, the blog’s founder Charles Johnson posted the story along with exhibits of both sets of pictures to the site.

Describing the cropping of the images of an “abuse of photo-imagery by Reuters,” Edelstein wrote, “I am sure you are aware that pictures – originally produced by the violent activists aboard the Mavi Marmara and published in the Turkish media - clearly show the use of knives against Israeli servicemen. However, when these pictures were initially distributed on the wires by Reuters picture service they were cropped to exclude the knives and blood that bore evidence of the violent intentions of those who participated in the attacks, and provided vital evidence in support of Israel’s claims.”

The letter was cc’d to David Thomson, Chairman Thomson Reuters, and Alistair MacDonald, Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Chief.

While acknowledging that Reuters has since “distributed the original images,” Edelstein added, “There is of course great concern that the altering of the images distributed could have been done with intent rather than due to mistakes in the editorial process.”