Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, announced on Monday that it was disinvesting from 16 companies connected with Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, including Motorola and Israeli telecom giant Bezeq.
Following a “thorough assessment” of a list of companies involved in the settlements published last year by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, KLP has sold shares and bonds in these firms worth approximately $32 million, the fund said in a statement.
The affected companies are: Alstom; Shtrom Group; Electra; Bank Hapoalim; Bank Leumi; First International Bank Israel; Israel Discount Bank; Mizrahi Tefahot Bank; Altice Europe; Bezeq; Cellcom Israel; Partner Communications; Delek Group; Energix-Renewable Energies; Paz Oil Co.; and Motorola Solutions.
“Our assessment is that there is an unacceptable risk that the excluded companies will contribute to the violation of human rights in war and conflict situations through their connection to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank,” said senior KLP investment analyst Kiran Aziz.
KLP had contacted the affected companies to attempt to “establish a dialogue” before deciding to disinvest, but the companies failed to respond, said Aziz.
“We always want to have a dialogue with the companies, to influence them through our ownership,” she said, adding that when that influence “did not yield results,” KLP chose to exclude the companies.
