"The issue of Israel-Palestine is hotter now than it was in the mid to late 1990s and it is probably easier to get people who are non die-hard activists out on the streets," said Jonathan Cummings, researcher at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
"But lobbying groups have existed from time immemorial and it is not new that people are trying to influence public debate."
Some see the wave of activity as inflaming an already volatile situation further.
Bassem Eid, director of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, which documents human rights abuses of Palestinians by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, said: "The whole information war around the world makes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict more complicated. These people think they are trying to help either the Israelis or Palestinians which is not the case."
"I [witness] so many foreign groups who come to the [conflict] area, some are pro-Israeli and some are pro-Palestinian. But if you are a foreigner and want to help, you should not be considered either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian because when you become one sided, it does not provide any help here."



