Hostages Forum sends legal warning to Yeshivat Ateret Shlomo over abuse of symbols
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum sends a legal warning to a haredi yeshiva for misusing its symbols.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum – representing the families of those abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack – sent on Thursday a formal legal warning letter to the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Yeshivat Ateret Shlomo in Beit Shemesh.
The letter, issued by attorney Asa Kling, representing the Forum, accuses the yeshiva of a cynical, degrading, and unlawful use of materials belonging to it.
According to the notice, the yeshiva’s campaign used – without permission – the Forum’s designs, slogans, and the yellow‑ribbon symbol associated with the national struggle to bring home the hostages. The Forum said that the campaign constitutes a flagrant infringement of its trademarks and copyrights, misrepresentation of affiliation, and exploitation of its reputation for political purposes.
The Forum demanded that the yeshiva immediately cease all use of materials identified with it, commit to refrain from future infringements of its intellectual property, issue a public apology to the hostages and their families, and pay compensation amounting to NIS 400,000.
“Return the symbols to their rightful place – symbols of hope, unity, and the fight for the return of hostages held by a cruel enemy to Israeli soil,” said the Forum.
THE ISSUE of haredi conscription into the IDF has once again been brought into the spotlight this week, even as the Knesset continues its inability to legislate the matter. If elections come soon, the haredi parties could be in danger of losing their place in government, and their reality may change (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The warning letter comes amid one of the most divisive moments in Israel’s recent social and military history. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others, mostly civilians, into Gaza. Over a dozen hostages remain missing or held, and the families’ campaign to “bring them home” has become a powerful national symbol and moral rallying cry.
Social tensions are threatening to spill
At the same time, internal social tensions are threatening to spill over. The haredi sector has long resisted military draft mandates for yeshiva students – a resistance that many see as ethically troubling in the context of the ongoing war. As the letter was submitted, a massive “million‑man” haredi protest against the drafting of yeshiva students was being organized in Jerusalem. Police have closed major access routes, including Highway 1; rail access has been shut down.
The protest underscores a deeper fault‑line: While many Israelis view the war effort as a national call to arms, a significant portion of the population regards Torah study as its contribution and rejects enlistment. The result is a bitter divide – some see this as a betrayal of national duty, others as preservation of religious identity.
In this charged atmosphere, the misuse of hostages’ families’ symbols by a yeshiva that is part of the haredi establishment takes on added significance. The Forum argued that these symbols – the yellow ribbon, slogans, designs – were intended to represent all Israelis unified in the hostage-return struggle. Their appropriation for a campaign tied to draft protest not only infringes intellectual‑property rights but “cheapens” the symbol in the eyes of the families of those still held in captivity, reads the letter.
The letter itself signals a legal escalation; it is not merely rhetorical. By invoking trademark, copyright, and rights of publicity claims, the Forum is officially challenging the yeshiva’s campaign as wrongful exploitation of identity and reputation. Should the yeshiva fail to comply, the Forum may proceed to court, not just for compensation but to seek injunctive relief to block further misuse.
The optics of using a national hostage symbol for a protest seen by many as against a war effort component (military drafting) could provoke wider public backlash. For the families of hostages, still living in limbo and seeking closure, the demand is about maintaining the purity of their symbol – as one “of hope, unity and rescue,” reads the letter.
The yeshiva now faces three immediate decisions: Whether to comply by stopping the use of the materials and issuing the requested apology; whether to negotiate a settlement of the NIS 400,000 claim; or whether to contest the entire legal basis of the Forum’s demands, which could trigger a full court case, with attendant publicity and scrutiny.
