Norway fund urged by union to divest from companies aiding Israel in occupied territories

Straits Times

05-05-2025

Steinar Krogstad, deputy leader of Norway's LO trade union confederation, poses for a picture outside LO's congress in Oslo, Norway, May 5, 2025. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man inspects the house where Palestinian newlywed Hala Zaarab was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
Norway fund urged by union to divest from companies aiding Israel in occupied territories
OSLO - Norway's $1.8 trillion wealth fund should divest from all companies that aid Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories, a leader at Norway's powerful LO trade union told Reuters, intensifying an ongoing divestment campaign.
LO, the biggest confederation of trade unions in Norway, is aligned with the governing Labour Party and often exerts influence on policy beyond traditional workers' rights issues.
"We want the fund to pull out of the companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian territories," Steinar Krogstad, deputy leader at LO, said in an interview.
LO's general policy is that Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, should not invest in companies that breach international law, Krogstad said.
"This question is more on the agenda now ... because of Israel's policy, attacks and war in Gaza and in the West Bank," he said, speaking on the margins of the union's congress, where the Palestinian flag flew alongside those of the United Nations and Norway.
The Israeli embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The U.N.'s highest court last year said Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, in a ruling that Tel Aviv rejected as "fundamentally wrong" and one-sided.
LO and 47 other civil society organisations sent Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg a letter, dated April 10 and seen by Reuters, to push for such a move.
The letter asks Stoltenberg - an LO member - to instruct the central bank, which operates the fund, to divest from companies "where there is an unacceptable risk of complicity in violating international law in the occupied Palestinian territories".
It also asks Stoltenberg take the initiative to give more precise guidelines for the observation and exclusion of companies from the oil fund "in such a way that they are in accordance with international law".
Daily VG first reported on the letter.
Krogstad said LO would also request a meeting with Stoltenberg to discuss the issue. No date had yet been set, he said.
The finance ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
It has said it is important for the fund not to be perceived as a tool of foreign policy and that it follows the fund's ethical guidelines that have been decided by parliament.
The fund has faced pressure to divest from companies active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023.
Since then, it has divested from telecoms company Bezeq, and another unnamed company is under consideration for exclusion by the central bank's board.
Most other companies active in the occupied Palestinian territories have been cleared in a review by the fund's ethical watchdog, which operates the fund's ethical guidelines.
The fund held stocks worth 22 billion crowns ($2.12 billion) across 65 companies listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange as of the end of 2024, according to fund data. They represent 0.1% of the fund's overall investments. REUTERS
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