ARENDAL: Norway’s US$2 trillion sovereign wealth fund said on Monday it is terminating all contracts with asset managers handling its Israeli investments and has divested parts of its portfolio in the country over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
The announcement follows an urgent review launched last week following media reports that the fund had built a stake in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets.
The fund, an arm of Norway’s central bank, which held stakes in 61 Israeli companies as of June 30, in recent days divested stakes in 11 of these, it said in a statement.
“We have now completely sold out of these positions,” the fund said, adding that it continued to review Israeli companies for potential divestments.
Norway’s parliament in June rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.