Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen today announced that the country’s $400 billion-strong sovereign wealth fund, the Oil Fund, has divested itself of all investments in the large Elbit company, based on Elbit’s involvement in the building and maintenance of the illegal Wall built by Israel deep inside the occupied West Bank.
Elbit, based in Haifa, makes surveillance systems used by Israel on the wall.
Bloomberg reports that Halvorsen told a press conference in Oslo today that,
- “[I]nvestment in Elbit constitutes an unacceptable risk of contribution to serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.”
… “The International Court of Justice has ruled that the building of this barrier violates international law and the Norwegian authorities have expressed the same opinion… The decision to exclude this company is not on the background of its nationality. The surveillance system Elbit delivers to the Israeli authorities is a central component of this separation barrier, or wall.”
Amira Hass, reporting this development for Haaretz, notes that Halvorsen’s decision comes in response to vigorous protests that have been mounted in Norway against Norwegian involvement in settlement-related and Wall-related companies.
She adds,
- Norway’s pension fund is invested in 41 different Israeli companies.
A research project by the Coalition of Women for Peace called “Who profits from the occupation” found that almost two thirds of those firms are involved in West Bank construction and development.
You can find the Coalition’s information on this here.
Norway’s decision on Elbit is a breakthrough. The Bloomberg piece gives more details about the operations, thinking, and other recent ethics-related decisions taken by the country’s Finance Ministry regarding the investment portfolio of the Norwegian Oil Fund.
It tells us that before today, the ministry, based on the advice of the ethics council that the Oil Fund established in 2004, had previously divested itself from 30 other companies, though some of these bans were later rescinded. For example, a ban was earlier imposed on Thales, Europe’s biggest maker of military electronics, because it was making cluster munitions; when that production stopped, the ban was rescinded.
I hope that portfolio managers in other institutions with large investment portfolios– including of course, pension funds and universities in the US– are looking closely at Norway’s latest decision and, crucially, the reasoning behind it.
Divesting from direct financial entanglement with Israel’s large-scale and continuing construction and control projects in the occupied territories strikes me as unquestionably the right thing to do, regardless what one thinks about the issue of a broader divestment from Israel as a whole so long as its government continues with these illegal policies.
Bravo, Norway!?
Helena, what US did and ivaded Iraq is it violates international law?
Helena US illegal Wall built, the building of barriers rounded the cities in Falujah, in Mussel and mainly in Baghdad, is it “constitutes an unacceptable risk of contribution to serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.” which started by CPA ethnic ganda?
Finally should The International Court of Justice speaking and spell its words, or the justice have two faces?
Bravo ?? we thought that this is the Economic news section, not political. I think that the reporter has crossed a dangerous line here by imposing her personal opinion, which in itself is debatable but in any case should be left out of any economic coverage. I find this doing to be tasteless and violation of neutral reporting.
The Norweigians do not understand anything about the middle East.
The main problem is the growth of the danger of the fundumental Islam (not the whole Islam) and Al Quaida and Iran who just started to launch terror in Europe.
This is the same Norway and Europe that didn’t see the danger in Hitler rise, inspite of the fact that Hitler said more than once his intentions for Europe and it’s minorities
Bravo!
Israel Lieberman, you aren’t by any chance related to that great liberal humanitarian, Avigdor Lieberman, are you? We all know what his intentions for the Palestinians are. If you want to make fascist references & analogies, you can stick closer to home, Mr. Lieberman. You’ve got one right there in your namesake.
And you should get your European history better (clearly not your strong suit), Norway actively resisted the Nazis, with a lot of valor and courage. There are wonderful daredevil accounts of Resistance on Skis with Nazis in hot pursuit, sabotage, etc. The Wehrmacht flew over Sweden to bomb Norway through much of the war and the Norwegians coped the best they could. It’s a lazy sleight of hand to say all Europeans were a doormat for Hitler, it shows great contempt and disrespect for all those who fought against the Nazis.
Correction: When I wrote “Wehrmacht”, I obviously meant to write “Luftwaffe”.