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3w ago

Norway Rejects Proposal to Divest $1.9 Trillion Wealth Fund From Companies in Occupied Palestinian Territories

Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg clarified that the fund will withdraw only from companies judged to breach international law, prompting activists to keep pressing for full divestment.

A Jewish settler walks past Israeli settlement construction sites around Givat Zeev and Ramat Givat Zeev in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, near Jerusalem June 30, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
A view of new buildings around the Israeli settlement Talmon B near the Palestinian town of Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman/File Photo
Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, head of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, poses for a picture in Oslo, Norway, on March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche/File Photo
A view of the Israeli settlement Ofra near Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya where Israeli settlers torched houses, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

Overview

  • On June 4, Norway’s parliament voted down a Socialist Left Party motion that would have forced its $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund to exit all firms with operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
  • Jens Stoltenberg told lawmakers the fund’s ethical framework mandates divestment only from companies deemed complicit in breaches of international law rather than imposing a blanket ban.
  • UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned in a May 20 letter that investments in Israeli corporations underpin infrastructure sustaining the occupation’s economic and security apparatus.
  • Norges Bank’s independent ethics council has over the past year recommended selling stakes in Israeli petrol chain Paz and telecoms firm Bezeq and is reviewing further links to occupation activities.
  • Pro-Palestinian campaigners demonstrated outside the Storting and Socialist Left lawmaker Ingrid Fiskaa argued that withdrawing fund capital would make it harder for Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian homes.