Locales: custom "messages_he.properties" messages aren't displayed

[kipod]

Hello all,
In a simple out-of-the-wizard's-box Seam project,
I can't seem to get my custom made messages for the Hebrew locale displayed.
I'm trying the customize validation messages,
e.g. javax.faces.component.UIInput.REQUIRED .

faces-config.xml snippet:

<locale-config>
        <default-locale>en</default-locale>
        <supported-locale>en</supported-locale>
        <supported-locale>he</supported-locale>
        <supported-locale>fr</supported-locale>
</locale-config>

relevant snippet in facelet page:

<h:form>
        <h:selectOneMenu value="#{localeSelector.localeString}">
                <f:selectItems value="#{localeSelector.supportedLocales}" />
        </h:selectOneMenu>
        <h:commandButton action="#{localeSelector.select}"
                value="#{messages['ChangeLanguage']}" />
</h:form>

and of course the .properties files exist:
messagesen.properties
messagesfr.properties
messageshe.properties


For the 'en' and the 'fr' locales, it works just fine.
As for the 'he' one, Seam or JSF or something else along the way
blurts out:



"j_id11:j_id15:j_id17: Validation Error: Value is required."



(which I definitely did not dictate anywhere).
I thought it had something to do with character encodings,
even though I originally supplied the messages by the \u**** encodings,
so I changed the messageshe.properties file to have only English
messages in it.
Still no go.

I would really appreciate any help or explanation on the matter,
Thanks!

[kipod]

a more readable version of the last part:

and of course the .properties files exist:
messages_en.properties
messages_fr.properties
messages_he.properties

For the 'en' and the 'fr' locales, it works just fine. As for the 'he' one, Seam or JSF or something else along the way blurts out:

"j_id11:j_id15:j_id17: Validation Error: Value is required."

(which I definitely did not dictate anywhere). I thought it had something to do with character encodings, even though I originally supplied the messages by the \u**** encodings, so I changed the messages_he.properties file to have only English messages in it.
Still no go.

[kipod]

one simple observation:

Tried putting my own message in messages_he.properties :

welcome=Shalom

and displaying it as a label on page:

<h:outputText value="#{messages['welcome']}" />

But it shows up as "welcome", and not as "Shalom".
When doing the exact same thing with the messages_fr.properties - it works.

For some reason, the app ain't using my messages_he.properties ...

Any advice would be very much welcomed.