Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza load their belongings onto a car before heading south as the Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to the southern part of the territory, in Gaza City, on August 18, 2025. (Photo by Reuters)
Norway’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund says it has decided to exclude another six companies linked to the development of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and the ongoing Gaza carnage from its portfolio, following an ethics review.
The $2 trillion wealth fund on Monday refrained from disclosing the names of the companies it has chosen to exclude; however, it stated that these names, along with the specific reasons for each exclusion, would be made public after the divestments are finalized.
One potential scenario is that Israel's five largest banks are included among them, as they have been subject to scrutiny by the fund's ethical oversight committee.
The most recent exclusions have increased the total number of Israeli companies from which the fund has divested to 23 since June 30. The figure may continue to grow.
At present, the fund possesses interests in 38 Israeli firms, amounting to 19 billion crowns ($1.9 billion) in investments, a decrease from 61 companies with a total of 23 billion crowns as of June 30, according to a letter from the fund’s operator, Norges Bank Investment Management, dated Monday.
The most recent announcement comes after an urgent review initiated this month, prompted by reports indicating that the fund had acquired a stake in an Israeli jet engine company that offers services to the Israeli military, including the upkeep of fighter jets.
The reports ignited a renewed discussion regarding the fund's investments in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in anticipation of the September 8 elections, with certain parties urging the fund to withdraw its investments from all Israeli companies, a measure that the government has dismissed.
In June, Norway's parliament declined a proposal for the fund to withdraw investments from all companies operating in the occupied Palestinian lands.
Critics argue that a total divestment from investments in Israeli companies is the only way to safeguard the fund from potential ethical violations.
Israel has ramped up violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and killed at least 1,014 Palestinians and injured more than 7,000 others since it launched a genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023.
The International Court of Justice declared in July 2024 that Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land is illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 62,004 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 156,230 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
