Norway fund excludes companies operating in West Bank – KIRO 7 News Seattle

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – (AP) – Norway’s largest pension fund said it had sold 16 companies operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Oslo-based KLP, which manages more than 300 billion kroner ($ 35 billion), said it sold stocks and bonds worth 275 million kroner ($ 32 million) after trying to talk to the companies.

“There is an unacceptable risk that the excluded companies, through their connection to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, will contribute to human rights violations in war and conflict situations,” senior analyst Kiran Aziz said in a statement on Monday.

All 16 companies were on a list published by the United Nations last year of 112 companies involved in violating Palestinian human rights through their activities in the West Bank.

As of June 2021, KLP will stop doing business in the West Bank, including banking, construction, infrastructure and telecommunications. These include Motorola Solutions and the French energy and transport company Alstom SA. Messages were left with both companies asking for comments.

Aziz said banks were on the list because they finance housing construction and help build, expand or maintain the settlements, construction companies because of their material and infrastructure supplies. The exclusion of telecommunications companies is because communications services are considered a basic infrastructure for modern societies.

“Companies have a responsibility to respect and protect human rights in all countries in which they operate, regardless of whether the state itself respects these rights,” Aziz said in the statement. “Conflicts can harbor a particularly high risk of human rights violations.”

There was no immediate Israeli response, but Israel has criticized the UN list as biased and even anti-Semitic.

Last month, KLP ruled out Myanmar affiliates AdaniPorts and SpecialEconomicZone for being part of Myanmar’s military breach of the fund’s responsible investment policy. Two years ago, she closed the UK security company G4S from investing because the group operates in countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where there is a risk of violating international labor standards.

Aziz said KLP had contacted the affected companies to start a dialogue, but that had not produced any results. Aziz said that only Alstom was ready to meet but that its activities in the occupied territories did not contribute to violations of international law.

Israel conquered the West Bank along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the Middle East War in 1967. Today about 500,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the West Bank, in addition to about 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future independent state. The international community widely regards the settlements as illegal and as obstacles to peace.

KLP did not comment on Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem.

Israel annexed the area after the 1967 war and considers it part of its capital city, but the annexation is not recognized internationally. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. ___ Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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