Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, continues to liquidate investments in Israel. The fund, which manages some $2 trillion, and invests all over the world, has reported the sale of its holdings in Israel’s main banks “due to an unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict.”
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The stocks in question are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, First International Bank of Israel, and FIBI (parent company of First International Bank). Discount Bank of Israel, in which the fund held shares at the end of the first half year, is not in the list, but it may be that the fund sold its stake earlier. At the end of the first half, the value of the fund’s investment in the six stocks was $678 million.
As the reason for disinvestment, the fund cites the services that the banks provide beyond the Green Line (the 1948 ceasefire line). The recommendation of the fund’s Council on Ethics, on which the disinvestment decision is based, states that by providing financial services that are a necessary prerequisite for construction activity in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the banks have contributed to the maintenance of Israeli settlements.
“These settlements have been established in violation of international law, and their continued existence constitutes an ongoing breach of international law,” the Council states, adding that there is “an unacceptable risk” that the banks will continue “to contribute to the maintenance, expansion, and/or establishment of new Israeli settlements, which forms the basis for recommending the company’s exclusion from the GPFG.”
The fund has also acted on a recommendation from its Council on Ethics to disinvest from US construction equipment company Caterpillar Inc., in which it held a 1.23% stake, on the grounds that the company’s bulldozers “are being used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property,” and the company “has also not implemented any measures to prevent such use.”
The fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen said in a press conference that the fund would disinvest from more Israeli companies, but that it did not intend to liquidate its investments in Israel entirely.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on August 26, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
