Norway's wealth fund faces growing pressure over Israel investments

Pressure is growing on Norway's $1.6 trillion wealth fund to consider the terms on which it invests in Israel due to the war in Gaza, with several non-governmental organisations and parliamentarians calling on Tuesday for a total divestment. The fund's ethics watchdog is already investigating whether Israeli companies in which it holds shares fall outside its permitted investment guidelines due to the war.

Pressure is growing on Norway's $1.6 trillion wealth fund to consider the terms on which it invests in Israel due to the war in Gaza, with several non-governmental organisations and parliamentarians calling on Tuesday for a total divestment.

The fund's ethics watchdog is already investigating whether Israeli companies in which it holds shares fall outside its permitted investment guidelines due to the war. However, critics say this does not go far enough because recommendations from the fund can take months, if not years, to materialise. Universities and fund managers globally have been under pressure to divest due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is now nearing the end of its seventh month.

This extends to the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, which held investments worth 15 billion crowns ($1.36 billion) across 76 companies in Israel at the end of 2023, fund data shows, including in real estate, banks, energy and telecoms. They represented 0.1% of the fund's overall investments.

"The Israeli economy is dependent on international investments and support from the United States ... so we must divest from the Israeli economy to stop the ongoing genocide," Line Khateeb, leader of the Palestine Committee in Norway, a non-governmental organisation, told Reuters. Israel rejects the accusation that its military operation is a state-led genocide campaign against Palestinians. It says it acts to defend itself and is fighting militant group Hamas.

Khateeb was speaking outside Norway's parliament on the day its finance committee held a hearing on the fund's activities over the past year. Behind Khateeb, around 20 pro-Palestinian activists, some with a banner saying "Deinvest now!!" Inside the building, left-wing lawmaker Kari Elisabeth Kaski asked the finance minister and fund officials why they had not tightened its ethical guidelines given the war in Gaza.

Kaski wants parliament to place Israel under sanctions and instruct the fund to sell out of Israeli companies completely. Norway's central bank chief Ida Wolden Bache said the existing ethical guidelines had been thoroughly reviewed and held broad political consensus.

The fund operates under ethical rules set by parliament, and over the years has divested from nine companies, all Israeli, over activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. ($1 = 11.0213 Norwegian crowns)

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