Norway’s Wealth Fund Divests From 11 of 61 Stakes in Israeli Companies

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, has divested from some Israeli companies after a newspaper uncovered the fund’s stake in an Israeli jet engine firm that provides parts for Israel’s military.

The $2 trillion fund, owned by Norway’s government, announced on Monday that it has sold out its investments in 11 of 61 Israeli companies as of the first half of 2025. It also said that the fund itself will now manage its investments in Israeli companies and terminate contracts with external managers in Israel.

As of the end of last year, the fund had shares in 65 Israeli companies, worth about $2 billion. The fund said that the sale of the stakes was in response to the “extraordinary circumstances” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Other investments in Israeli companies are under review, the fund said.

“The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis. We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence,” said Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the fund.

The sale comes after Norway’s top newspaper, Aftenposten, published an investigation finding that the fund had a stake in Ben Shemesh Engines Ltd. The company provides parts for the maintenance of Israel’s fighter jets, which Israeli forces have used extensively in its genocide in Gaza and assault on the occupied West Bank.

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, pointed out the hypocrisy of Norwegian leaders and media for investing in Israeli companies while publicly criticizing Israel.

“Norway’s position on Palestine epitomises the contradiction of our times,” Albanese said on social media on Saturday. Despite her alerts about the fund’s investments and its potential liability in violations of international law, she said, “So far, financial considerations and interests seem to have prevailed over full compliance with international law and ethical commitments.”

“If not Norway, who? If not now, when?” she said.

Albanese has previously found that nearly 10 percent of the fund is invested in companies she exposed as part of Israel’s “economy of occupation” in a report last month — and that the wealth fund actually increased its investment in Israeli companies by 32 percent after October 2023.

Earlier this year, Norway’s parliament rejected a measure for the fund to divest from all companies involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Norway’s finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said that, while the fund is reviewing its stakes in Israeli firms, it isn’t necessarily divesting from all of them.

“The pension fund is withdrawing from companies that are contributing to state violations of international law, but they are not withdrawing from Israeli companies just because they are Israeli,” Stoltenberg told Financial Times on Monday.

The leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party, Kirsti Bergstø, said that the fund’s latest step doesn’t go far enough.

“It is too small. The oil fund is still heavily invested in genocide, and when the government after two years comes with a demand to tidy up, then a list of 11 Israeli companies is not enough,” she said, per Financial Times.

The sale is one of numerous measures taken by western governments that attempts to appease the movement for Palestinian rights while ultimately falling short. Australia, for instance, on Monday became the latest wealthy western country to announce that it is planning to recognize a Palestinian state, but only contingent on the demilitarization of Gaza – a demand for Palestinians to forfeit the right to armed resistance as recognized under international law – and the ousting of Hamas from government, which is also a stated goal of Israel’s genocide.