Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is considering tightening its ethical standards for investments and divesting from more global companies linked to Israel’s war in Gaza, Reuters reported, according to a letter seen by Reuters that the fund’s ethics board sent to the Norwegian finance ministry on Aug. 30.
The fund, one of the world’s largest investment bodies with an investment portfolio estimated at $1.7 trillion, has come under intense pressure in recent months from human rights groups in Norway to “do more” to show solidarity with the Palestinians and to withdraw from companies linked to Israeli military activities.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s ethics board wrote in a letter seen by Reuters that the fund should interpret its operating standards more stringently regarding companies that cooperate with Israeli activities across the Green Line and in Gaza.
The letter comes in part as a result of an opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that Israel’s occupation of the Green Line is illegal. “The Ethics Board believes that the ethical guidelines provide the basis for excluding a few additional companies from the Government Pension Fund Global in addition to those already excluded,” the letter said.
Although the letter did not specify which companies it was targeting, Reuters believes it refers to US companies RTX Corp, General Electric and General Dynamics, which NGOs say supply Israel with various types of weapons. “There are very few relevant companies remaining in the fund,” the ethics council wrote, in part because many US arms manufacturers were already banned for their past activities.
“The pressure is building and building.”
In the past, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has divested from a range of Israeli and international companies operating along the Green Line. The fund still holds investments in 77 Israeli companies worth $1.4 billion, including Israeli banks.
In recent months, the fund, whose ethical standards are set by the Norwegian parliament, has come under increasing political pressure from various parties, human rights organizations and unions, demanding that it completely divest from Israel due to the war in Gaza. At the start of the war, the fund said it was “reconsidering” its investments in defense companies linked to the war in Israel, but there have been no updates since then.
In May, a Norwegian official told the Financial Times: “The pressure is mounting. There is no way to do it in a way that satisfies everyone. It is very difficult.”
This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on September 4, 2024.
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