RIYADH: Israel’s foreign ministry is looking into reports that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is considering pulling all investments from the country in light of its West Bank expansionism policy.
According to local media reports from Israel, the Scandinavian country has been mulling over whether to withdraw investments because of the continued expansion of settlements into the disputed territories.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, government officials believe the latest move is influenced by the UN’s 2020 decision to issue a blacklist of more than 100 global companies that conduct business tied to Israeli settlements.
PA Minister of Social Development Ahmed Majdalani commented on the Norwegian decision in his interview with Arab News, saying, “We thank the Norwegian Fund for this decision. We consider it a step in the right direction by respecting the decisions of legitimacy and international law by confiscating and stopping funding for illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands. We call on all investment funds of states to make such a decision,”
For his part, PA Minister of Social Development Ahmed Majdalani told Arab News, “We thank the Norwegian Fund for this decision. We consider it a step in the right direction by respecting the decisions of legitimacy and international law by confiscating and stopping funding for illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands. We call on all investment funds of states to make such a decision,”
The new Israeli government — a coalition between Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and far-right Religious Zionism — has seen an agreement reached that the state will work on “applying sovereignty” over the West Bank — a deal interpreted as meaning further expansionism.
Earlier this month, Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund announced it would exclude Israeli security and analytics software provider Cognyte Software Ltd from its portfolio as it held an “unacceptable risk” of human rights’ violations.
The fund's ethics council said several states that are said to be customers of its surveillance products and services “have been accused of extremely serious human rights violations.”
The statement did not name any state and Cognyte did not respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.
According to The Times of Israel, Norway’s wealth fund is currently invested in around 80 Israeli stocks, including banks, industry and technology companies.
Regarding the possibility of the fund’s divesting from Israel, the media outlet reported the country’s foreign ministry as saying: “We are aware of this serious issue and handling it.”
Arab News approached Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the Israeli foreign ministry for comments on the reports but did not receive a response from either institution.
