Hostages Forum Sues Yeshiva Which Used Yellow Symbol To Protest Yeshiva Student’s Imprisonment

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Hostages and Missing Families Forum sent a legal warning letter to the Ataret Shlomo yeshiva in Beit Shemesh, accusing it of “cynical, degrading, and unlawful use” of the movement’s symbols and materials.

In the letter, attorney Asa Kling — head of the Intellectual Property Department at the law firm Naschitz, Brandes, Amir — claimed that as part of a campaign conducted by the yeshiva, “designs, slogans, posters, and the yellow symbol associated with the families’ struggle were used without permission, in a manner that constitutes copyright and trademark infringement, deception, misrepresentation, and exploitation of the Forum’s reputation for propagandistic and political purposes.”

The Forum is demanding that the yeshiva immediately cease all use of materials associated with the families’ campaign, provide a written commitment not to further violate the Forum’s intellectual property rights, issue a public apology to the hostages’ families, and pay financial compensation of 400,000 shekels.

“We call for restoring the symbols to their rightful place — as emblems of hope, unity, and the struggle to bring home the hostages held by a cruel enemy, to be buried in the soil of Israel,” said the Forum.

The warning was sent after children from Talmudei Torah (elementary religious schools) affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox education network demonstrated outside Military Prison 10 against the draft law and the arrest of draft evaders, wearing hats and carrying yellow balloons — symbols associated with the hostages’ families’ campaign.

הרב שלום בער סורוצקין ראש מוסדות עטרת שלמה מסביר את ההשוואה לחטופים: “החטופים שייכים לנו אפילו יותר משלכם. בזכות לימוד התורה שלנו הם חזרו חיים מהשבי. רק רצינו להביא לכם משל כדי שתבינו אותנו, חטפו את אריאל שמאי לבית האסורים. ולנתק אותנו מהתורה זה לנתק חמצן מהחולה” pic.twitter.com/bfP242EFbo

— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) October 27, 2025

Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, head of Ataret Shlomo — where Ariel Shamai, who was arrested as a draft evader, studies — responded:
“They accuse us of using the hostages’ symbols — but Ariel was torn from his home. Today they have complaints against us. The hostages are ours too. We prayed for them. We performed great miracles for them to come out of captivity. We have no desire to hurt anyone, but understand this: to sever us from the Torah is like cutting off oxygen from a sick person. You fight for political privileges — we fight for the world of Torah.”