Norway has ordered a review of its sovereign wealth fund’s holdings to ensure that Israeli companies linked to the occupation of the West Bank or the war in Gaza are excluded from its investment portfolio, its government said on Tuesday.
The review followed a report by the Aftenposten daily that said the $1.9 trillion fund had built a stake in 2023-24 in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets.
The fund’s investment in the Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL) group is worrying, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK. “We must get clarification on this because reading about it makes me uneasy,” Stoere said.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund, took a 1.3% stake in BSEL in 2023 and raised this to 2.09% by the end of 2024, holding shares worth $15.2 million, the latest available NBIM records show.
In light of Aftenposten’s story and the security situation in Gaza and the West Bank, the central bank will now conduct a review of NBIM’s Israeli holdings, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
“In light of this (Gaza) case and the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank, I will today ask Norges Bank (Norway’s central bank) and the Ethics Council to conduct a renewed review of the fund’s investments in Israeli companies and the bank’s work on responsible management,” Stoltenberg said.
He stressed that the purpose of the review is to ensure that the fund is not financially linked to companies that may be complicit in violations of international law, NRK reported.
“The aim is to ensure that the fund is not invested in companies that contribute to the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the war in Gaza, that is contrary to international law,” Stoltenberg added.
Nicolai Tangen, CEO of NBIM, confirmed on Tuesday that the fund had purchased a stake in BSEL in 2023 and that it had increased its holdings after the Israeli offensive in Gaza began.
Tangen told NRK that BSEL had not appeared on any lists of recommended exclusions, such as those by the United Nations or the fund’s own ethics council.
Stoltenberg said he still had confidence in Tangen, following calls that the fund head should resign.
Norway’s parliament in June rejected a proposal for the sovereign wealth fund to divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, held shares in 65 Israeli companies at the end of 2024, valued at $1.95 billion, its records show.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group in the last year, and its ethics council has said it is reviewing whether to recommend divesting holdings in five banks.
The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 61,000 Palestinians, almost half of them women and children. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its war on the enclave.
