By Kevin McCauley
The Palestine Liberation Organization has hired Bell Pottinger USA for strategic communications, PR, media relations and U.S. Congressional outreach as the United Nations may vote next month to recognize Palestine as an independent state.
The United States opposes that tally and members of Congress have threatened to cut off aid in the event that statehood is granted to the Palestinian authority.
David Sowells, who worked for Britain’s Labour Party and served as PA director of Time Warner, heads the U.K.-based firm’s U.S. operations.
Bell Pottinger has been active in the so-called Arab Spring, propping up governments in Bahrain and Yemen.
Parent company Chime Communications, though, blamed the uprising for a slip in PR revenues for the first-half of this year. In announcing its financial results, Chime said the Arab Spring “created some short-term challenges, but in the medium to long-term the opportunities for us to provide communications advice to emerging governments are considerable.”
Bell Pottinger has used Qorvis Communications, which handles Saudi Arabia, as a subcontractor on some Middle East work.
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