Norway wealth fund divests from Israel's Paz Retail and Energy due West Bank activities
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold all of its shares in Israel's Paz Retail and Energy because it owns and operates infrastructure for the supply of fuel to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The divestment, announced on Sunday, is the second after the fund's ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, adopted in August a tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel's operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The first divestment was from Israeli telecoms firm Bezeq, in December.
The fund, which owns 1.5 percent of listed shares across 9,000 companies globally, operates under guidelines set by Norway's parliament and is seen as a leader in the environmental, social and governance field.
It is the latest decision by a European financial entity to cut back links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
Paz is Israel's largest operator of gas stations and has nine stations in the occupied West Bank.
'By operating infrastructure for the supply of fuel to the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Paz is contributing to their perpetuation,' the Council on Ethics said in its recommendation to divest.
'The settlements have been established in violation of international law, and their perpetuation constitutes an ongoing violation thereof.'
Paz was not immediately available for comment outside of regular business hours.
The UN'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court last year said Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, in a ruling that Tel Aviv rejected as 'fundamentally wrong' and one-sided.
Divestments
The watchdog makes recommendations to the board of the Norwegian central bank, which has the final say on divestments.
The fund has now sold all its stock in the company.
It was not immediately clear if more divestments would happen.
In March, the fund's watchdog said it had cleared most of the companies it had reviewed over their activities in the occupied Palestinian territories after it launched a fresh review following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
The watchdog said at the time that it had made two recommendations to divest - Bezeq in December and now Paz - but did not say whether it had made more recommendations to divest.
Overall, the watchdog assessed around 65 companies in the fund's portfolio working in sectors including energy supply, infrastructure construction, travel and tourism and banking, among others.
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