Norges Bank Investment Management has withdrawn its investments from five Israeli banks and Caterpillar.

On Monday, Norway’s wealth fund named six companies it has excluded from its portfolio, citing an “unacceptable risk” that the firms contribute to serious violations of individual rights in situations of war and conflict.

RELATED:

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida correspondent killed in Israeli shelling in southern Gaza

The excluded firms are Israeli and U.S. companies, Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, said.

They are First International Bank of Israel Ltd, the holding company FIBI Holdings Ltd, Bank Leumi Le-Israel BM, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd, Bank Hapoalim BM, and Caterpillar Inc. The decision follows recommendations from the Council on Ethics dated June 25 and July 2.

Last week, the bank’s executive board decided to exclude six companies following an ethics review of operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

In a statement dated Aug. 11, Norges Bank Investment Management said it has sold 11 companies that were outside the fund’s equity benchmark index, and “for the time being” will refrain from investing in Israeli companies outside that index.

The fund launched an urgent review earlier this month after reports found that it had invested in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s armed forces. Critics said the fund could only avoid potential ethical breaches by fully divesting from Israeli companies.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon called for all countries to recognize Palestine. “I sincerely believe that the recognition of Palestine is the only guarantee of peace, security, and peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians,” she said in Ljubljana after meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Agabekyan Shahin.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: Xinhua – EFE

IN THIS ARTICLE