WFollowing the departure of Ehud Barak from the membership and leadership of the Israeli Labor Party, a leadership election was called.
WAmos-5 was an Israeli commercial communication satellite, part of the AMOS series of satellites. It was developed and built for Spacecom by NPO PM, the largest Russian satellite producer, at a cost of $157 million. The satellite was positioned at the 17° East longitude in the geostationary belt. It was launched on 11 December 2011, 11:17 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, atop a Proton-M/Briz-M launch vehicle. It provided coverage over the continent of Africa, as well as Europe and the Middle East.
WThe 2011 Israeli border demonstrations started on 15 May 2011, to commemorate what the Palestinians observe as Nakba Day. Various groups of people attempted to approach or breach Israel's borders from the Palestinian-controlled territory, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. At least a dozen people were killed when protesters attempted to cross the border from Syria.
WDirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority have been taking place since September 2010 as part of the peace process, between United States President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The ultimate aim of the direct negotiations is reaching an official "final status settlement" to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by implementing a two-state solution, with Israel remaining a Jewish state, and the establishment of a state for the Palestinian people.
WThe Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, also known as Wafa al-Ahrar, followed a 2011 agreement between Israel and Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners—mainly Palestinians and Arab-Israelis, although there was also a Ukrainian, a Jordanian and a Syrian. Two hundred and eighty of these had been sentenced to life in prison for planning and perpetrating various attacks against Israeli targets. Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari was quoted in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Hayat as confirming that the prisoners released under the deal were collectively responsible for the killing of 569 Israelis. The agreement came five years and four months after Palestinian militants captured Shalit in southern Israel along the Gaza Strip border.
WThe Ilan Grapel affair was an alleged Israeli espionage incident in Egypt involving dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel. On 12 June 2011, Egyptian authorities arrested Grapel on charges of fomenting unrest in Egypt as a Mossad agent in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. While Israel and Grapel's friends and family firmly rejected the charges, the Egyptian government never provided evidence to support its claim.
WThe 2011 Israeli social justice protests, which are also referred to by various other names in the media, were a series of demonstrations in Israel beginning in July 2011 involving hundreds of thousands of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds opposing the continuing rise in the cost of living and the deterioration of public services such as health and education. A common rallying cry at the demonstrations was the chant; "The people demand social justice!".
WThe Palestine Papers is a collection of confidential documents about the Israeli–Palestinian peace process leaked to Al Jazeera, which published them between 23 and 26 January 2011. Nearly 1,700 of documents from the office of the main PLO negotiator, Sa'eb Erekat, and his team have been published, dating from 1999 to 2010.
WRestoring Courage was a campaign announced on May 2011 by media personality Glenn Beck featuring a media event that took place in Jerusalem, on August 24, 2011, "to stand with the Jewish people". While announcing the rally, he expressed a belief that a two-state solution would "[cut] off Jerusalem, the Old City, to the rest of the world". Beck said security arrangements and logistics would pose a challenge: "The very gates of hell will open up against us." Beck's Mercury Radio Arts sponsored three rallies or observances associated with Restoring Courage, including a rally attended by hundreds of supporters on August 24 at the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount.
WUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1994, adopted unanimously on 30 June 2011, after considering a report by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Council extended its mandate for a further six months until 31 December 2011.
WThe Victoria Affair was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in March 2011 in which the Israeli Navy intercepted the vessel Victoria on the international waters in the Mediterranean, and discovered concealed weapons which, according to the IDF, were destined for Palestinian militant organizations in the Gaza Strip. The vessel was found to be carrying approximately 50 tons of weapons, including C-704 anti-ship missiles, rocket launchers, radar systems, mortar shells and rifle ammunition.
WLee Zeitouni was an Israeli pilates instructor, born in Kibbutz Neve Ur in northern Israel. At the age of 25, she was struck and killed by two French nationals, Claude Khayat and Eric Robic, who were driving a black BMW sports utility vehicle on September 16, 2011 in Tel Aviv. The two left the accident scene and fled to France to avoid criminal prosecution, where they accepted responsibility for the crime and expressed their regret.