Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund has announced it is terminating all contracts with asset managers overseeing its Israeli investments and has divested significant portions of its portfolio. This declaration followed an urgent review initiated last week, prompted by media reports revealing the fund’s stake in an Israeli jet engine manufacturer providing maintenance services to Israel’s military aircraft amid its murderous rampage on Gaza and the Palestinian people.
As of June 30, the fund, an arm of Norway’s central bank and the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, held shares in 61 Israeli companies. In recent days, it divested from 11 of these holdings, stating: “We have now completely sold out of these positions,” while affirming ongoing evaluations of other Israeli firms for potential divestment.
“These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances. The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis,” said Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. “We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence.”
The fund emphasised that it “has long paid particular attention to companies associated with war and conflict,” continuously monitoring “companies’ risk management related to conflict zones and respect for human rights.”
The Norwegian government launched the review after Aftenposten, the nation’s leading newspaper, exposed the fund’s investment in Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL), a supplier of parts for Israeli fighter jets deployed in the ongoing Gaza genocide. At the time, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre described the investment as “worrying.”
Holding stakes in approximately 8,700 companies worldwide, the fund has already divested from an Israeli energy company and telecommunications group within the past year.
In June, Norway’s largest pension fund also resolved to cut ties with firms conducting business in Israel, though parliament rejected a broader proposal to divest from all companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories.
Across Europe, according to Reuters, several major financial institutions have similarly reduced exposure to Israeli-linked companies, responding to mounting pressure from activists and governments demanding an end to the brutal and barbaric Gaza genocide.
Last month, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, urged states to sever all trade and financial relations with Israel, including a comprehensive arms embargo, and to withdraw support from what she termed an “economy of genocide.” In her report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, Albanese exposes “the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory.”
The report calls out companies, ranging from arms manufacturers and tech giants to heavy machinery firms and financial institutions for their “complicity” in Israel’s repression of Palestinians, from enabling territorial expansion to facilitating surveillance and killings.
