Norway's wealth fund divests from Israel's Bezeq over services in West Bank

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, announced on Tuesday that it has sold all its shares in Israel’s largest telecoms group, Bezeq, as it provides telecommunication services to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The decision comes after the fund’s ethics watchdog adopted a tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that support Israel’s actions in occupied Palestinian territories.

The fund's ethics council says that though Bezeq provides telecom services to Palestinians in the West Bank as well, it does not “outweigh the fact that the company, through its physical presence and provision of telecom services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is helping to facilitate the maintenance and expansion of these settlements.

“By doing so, the company is itself contributing to the violation of international law.”

Worth $1.8 trillion, the Norwegian fund has been an international leader in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment field. It also owns 1.5 percent of the world’s listed shares across 8,700 companies.

As of 30 June, the fund controlled 0.76 percent of Bezeq, which was then valued at almost $23.7m.

It is the latest European financial entity to cut ties with Israeli or Israel-linked companies as popular pressure mounts over Israel’s war on Gaza.

In a letter sent on 30 August to Norway’s finance ministry, the fund’s ethics watchdog explained that its new definition of ethical breaches was in part inspired by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s findings in July that “the occupation itself, Israel’s settlement policy and the way Israel uses the natural resources in the areas are in conflict with international law”.

Before this, the sovereign wealth fund had already divested from nine companies operating in the occupied West Bank.

The Council on Ethics stated it continues to monitor whether other companies may be breaching its ethical policies.