Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is reviewing its investments in ‘Israel’ and may entirely halt them over concerns about Israeli companies’ work in illegal West Bank settlements.
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which has assets estimated at $1.3 trillion, is considering about severing connections with Israeli corporations due to the United Nations’ 2020 decision to publish a blacklist of more than 100 worldwide businesses that conduct business in illegal Israeli settlements.
For months, the fund considered stopping its investments in “Israel, but with the election of Israel’s new far-right government the proposal acquired more traction recently.
“Our efforts to dissuade the fund from this action will be difficult to bring to fruition in the face of the stated policies of the [new] government regarding the territories,” an anonymous Israeli official told the network.
The sovereign wealth fund, designed to guarantee that future generations can benefit from Norway’s petroleum income, has made significant investments in “Israel.”
In 2020, the Norwegian wealth fund invested $1.3 billion in 81 Israeli companies – about a third of its total Middle East investments.
In December, the fund said it would exclude from its portfolio one Israeli software and data firm that it said held “unacceptable risk” of human rights violations.
It also has a history of divesting from businesses linked to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank. In 2020, the fund reportedly sold its holdings in two Israeli construction companies, Mivne Real Estate and Shafir Engineering, over illegal settlement construction.
Norway also announced in 2014 that the government pension fund would not invest in Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus, too, because they were involved in building in West Bank settlements. In its decision to exclude the two firms, the government cited “a serious violation of human rights in a war zone by building in settlements in East Jerusalem” based on a recommendation from its Council of Ethics.
Earlier this year, Norway decided that products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Eastern part of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights must be labeled with their place of origin.
In a statement announcing the move in June, the Norwegian foreign ministry noted a 2019 ruling by the European Union’s top court requiring products from these areas to be labeled as originating from an “Israeli settlement.”
“Foodstuffs originating in areas occupied by ‘Israel’ must be marked with the area from which the product comes, and that it comes from an Israeli settlement if that is the case,” the statement noted, “especially wine, olive oil, fruit, vegetables and potatoes.”
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