The Government Pension Fund of Norway, valued as of November 2024 at $1.744 trillion (making it the largest in the world), on Tuesday, sold all of its shares in the Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq because it provides telecom services to Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
The move followed a letter sent to Norway’s Finance Ministry on August 30 by the fund’s Council on Ethics summarizing the expanded definition of unethical corporate behavior.
“The Council on Ethics believes the ethical guidelines provide a basis for excluding a few more companies from the Government Pension Fund Global in addition to those already excluded,” the council wrote.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October, the ethical oversight body of the wealth fund has intensified its scrutiny of companies potentially breaching its investment guidelines. In the August letter, the watchdog signaled that the list of excluded firms is “expected to increase somewhat” under a revised policy.
Among the firms reportedly under review are RTX Corp., General Electric, and General Dynamics, which nongovernmental organizations allege manufacture weapons deployed by Israel in Gaza.
As of June 30, the fund had 16 billion crowns ($1.41 billion) invested in Israel, spanning 77 companies across sectors such as real estate, banking, energy, and telecommunications. These holdings account for just 0.1% of the fund’s total portfolio, according to publicly available data.
Regarding Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecom group, the Council on Ethics said in its recommendation to divest: “The company, through its physical presence and provision of telecom services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is helping to facilitate the maintenance and expansion of these settlements, which are illegal under international law. By doing so, the company is itself contributing to the violation of international law.”
The Council on Ethics acknowledged that Bezeq also provides services to Palestinian Authority-administered areas in Judea and Samaria. However, the Council stated that this role does not offset the company’s involvement in servicing Israeli settlements, a key factor in its ethical review.
