Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has sold all of its shares in Israel’s Bezeq as it provides telecom services to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, it has said.
According to Reuters, the decision to divest comes after the fund’s ethics watchdog, the Council on Ethics, adopted a new, tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The $1.8 trillion fund has been an international leader in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment field. It owns 1.5 per cent of the world’s listed shares across 8,700 companies, and its size carries influence. Bezeq is Israel’s largest telecoms group. It did not reply immediately to a request for comment.
“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, which are illegal under international law,” the fund’s watchdog said in its recommendation to divest.
“By doing so the company is itself contributing to the violation of international law,” it added.
The watchdog said it noted that the company had said it was also providing telecom services to Palestinian areas in the West Bank, but that did not outweigh the fact that it was also providing services to Israeli settlements.
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