KLP Nordic fund excludes 16 companies over links occupied with Reuters By West Bank

By Gwladys Fouche and Simon Jessop

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s largest pension fund KLP said on Monday it would no longer invest in 16 companies Alstom (PA 🙂 and Motorola because they are linked to the Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Along with many other countries, Norway believes the settlements are a violation of international law. A 2020 United Nations report said it had found 112 companies with operations related to the region, home to about 650,000 Israelis.

Companies in the field of telecommunications, banking, energy and construction are helping to facilitate Israel’s presence and are therefore at risk of violating international law and complicit against the KLP’s ethical guidelines.

“In the KLP’s assessment, there is an accepted risk that marginalized companies will contribute to human rights abuses in war and conflict situations through their links to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank,” the KLP said.

The KLP’s move led the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to decide in May to exclude two companies related to construction and real estate in the Palestinian territories.

KLP said it had sold shares of the Norwegian krone for $ 275 million ($ 31.81 million) and completed the process from June. He also sold stake in Motorola and Alstom.

Selling Motorola Solutions (NYSE 🙂 was a “very straightforward decision” because video security and software were used in border surveillance.

Bezeq and Cellcom Israel, among others, removed the telecommunications companies as the services they provided helped make settlements more attractive residential sites, KLP said, while Leumi banks helped finance the infrastructure.

In the same vein, construction and engineering teams such as Alstom and its members, Ashtrom and Electra, were responsible for building the infrastructure, which was helped by Paz Oil.

The other companies to be excluded were Hapoalim Bank, Israel Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Delek Group, Energix Renewable Energies, First International Bank of Israel and Partner Communications.

The telecommunications company Altice, which was listed until January 2021, was also left out.

($ 1 = 8.6460 Norwegian kroner)