Butterfly renamed in honor of murdered hostage Ariel Bibas
Orange Jerusalem renamed Orange Ariel, evoking an alternate biblical name for the capital and the vivid color of the slain 4-year-old’s hair
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
The Hebrew name of a spotted orange butterfly has been changed to honor murdered hostage Ariel Bibas by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, the Bibas family announced Friday.
The academy last week officially informed the family, and on Thursday hand-delivered a letter addressed to Bibas’s father, Yarden — who was also taken hostage but released in February under a ceasefire deal — of the final decision to rename Melitaea ornata (eastern knapweed fritillary).
Using one of the biblical names of Jerusalem, Ariel, the name of the butterfly was replaced in Hebrew from Kitmit Yerushalayim (Orange Jerusalem) to Kitmit Ariel (Orange Ariel) in honor of the four-year-old.
The decision was made unanimously by the academy’s members in a full plenum session after first securing the permission of Yarden Bibas.
“We believe that of all the orange butterflies in our country, this butterfly deserves to be named Ariel, as it is one of the names of Jerusalem,” the letter to Yarden Bibas read.
The idea to rename an orange butterfly came from the head of the academy’s zoological committee, Dr. Liat Gidron, inspired by the eulogy delivered by Yarden Bibas, who said that his son loved butterflies and the natural world. For decades, the committee has undertaken the task of giving Hebrew names to all animal life — and insects — that are native to Israel.
The Bibas family became a symbol of the tragedy of October 7, with the color orange coming to symbolize the effort to free them, inspired by the vivid orange hair of Ariel and his brother Kfir, who was kidnapped at the age of nine months.
Yarden, his wife Shiri, and their two children were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz — among the 251 hostages that Hamas-led terrorists took when they stormed southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
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— Omer Perchik (@OmerPerchik) April 4, 2025
Yarden Bibas, 35, was returned to Israel on February 1 after 484 days in captivity, two weeks after Israel reached a ceasefire and hostage deal with the terror group. Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives between January and March under the deal.
The remains of Ariel and Kfir were returned to Israel after a Hamas propaganda ceremony on February 20, along with those of slain captive Oded Lifshitz and an unidentified Gazan woman that the terror group claimed was Shiri Bibas. The real remains of Shiri, 32, were only returned a day later.
The IDF later said Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been murdered by their captors “in cold blood” and “with bare hands,” and that the captors carried out atrocities in an attempt to cover up their actions.
