Norway's global pension fund drops Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. due to ethics concerns
Associated Press
09/03/09 11:25 AM EDT
OSLO — Norway's finance minister on Thursday announced that the Israeli company Elbit Systems Ltd. had been dropped from the Nordic country's pension fund due to ethical concerns because it is involved in work on the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank.
The company supplies surveillance equipment used to monitor the barrier Israel is constructing in the Palestinian territory. It declined immediate comment, while the Israeli government protested the decision.
"We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said. She said the shares were sold secretly before the announcement.
Halvorsen said the separation wall has unacceptably restricted the movements of Palestinians on the West Bank, so that an investment in any company involved in the project causes "unacceptable risk of contribution to particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms."
Israel says the massive barrier is meant to protect the country by preventing attackers from entering. The Palestinians condemn it as a land grab, since the route frequently dips into the West Bank, dividing villages, hindering movement and blocking farmers from their fields.
In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "The director general of the foreign ministry, Yosef Gal, has summoned the Norwegian ambassador and expressed his protest."
When complete, the barrier is expected to stretch more than 400 miles (640 kilometers), swallowing nearly 10 percent of the West Bank on the Israeli side.
The minister also says she is lifting a ban on investing in two other companies, France's defense contractor Thales SA and South African mining group DRD Gold Ltd., because they are no longer involved in operations that Norway opposes.
Norway is a major exporter of oil and natural gas, and sets aside surplus central government revenue in the Government Pension Fund-Global — formerly the oil fund — for foreign investment to avoid overheating the domestic economy of the Nordic nation of 4.8 million people.
The fund is currently worth more than 2 trillion kroner ($333 billion) and is managed by Norway's central bank.
Since 2004, a national Council of Ethics has routinely reviewed investments by the fund, and periodically recommends dropping some shares based on a range of ethical issues, including human rights, labor rights, environmental issues and production of nuclear weapons and cluster bombs.
___
On the Net:
