diff --git a/phpBB/includes/utf/utf_tools.php b/phpBB/includes/utf/utf_tools.php
index 5a3a22d2ac..b2107c2f83 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/utf/utf_tools.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/utf/utf_tools.php
@@ -717,7 +717,7 @@ function utf8_recode($string, $encoding)
 	else if ($encoding == 'iso-8859-8-i')
 	{
 		$encoding = 'iso-8859-8';
-		$string = strrev($string);
+		$string = hebrev($string);
 	}
 
 	// First, try iconv()