The value of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund’s investments in Israeli companies has increased, prompting ethical concerns among campaign groups and charities as the war in Gaza continues.
The fund, the world’s largest, cut its Israeli holdings from ۶۱ to ۲۹ companies last year, citing “the serious humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
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Although it has made no new investments in Israeli firms since, returns from its remaining holdings reached $۲.۴bn in the first half of ۲۰۲۶ – a rise of ۱۵.۷ percent since the end of ۲۰۲۵.
The fund “represents enormous economic and political power”, Rami Samandar, head of Norway’s Palestine Committee, told Al Jazeera. “When Norwegian public capital is invested in companies whose activities contribute to Israel’s military aggression, the occupation and the infrastructure that sustains it, are very problematic and should be stopped.”
Launched in the ۱۹۹۰s to manage profits from oil and gas companies, the so-called “oil fund” is managed by Norges Bank.
“We believe that Norway, through the Norwegian oil fund’s investments, is failing to comply with its obligations under international law and is contributing to the maintenance of Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people,” Samandar said.
The value held in the Israeli drone-camera company NextVision Stabilized Systems has increased to $۲۵.۹m from $۲۱m in ۲۰۲۵ over the period. The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel’s largest aerospace and defence company which supplies the military, buys equipment from NextVision.
The fund also profits from stakes in One Software Technologies, which, according to Who Profits, a group that researches companies involved in Israel’s occupation, provides the Israeli Civil Administration maintenance services for the biometric identification system deployed at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. Formula Systems, another company, provides software services to the Israeli military through its subsidiary TSG.
Mads Harlem, an international lawyer at Save the Children Norway, told Al Jazeera that the fund should divest from NextVision so long as it “has not implemented adequate measures to prevent its products from contributing to violations of international humanitarian law”.
A spokesperson for Norges Bank Investment Management said the fund’s ethical framework is under review.
The finance ministry has “adopted temporary ethical guidelines and changes to the management mandate that apply until a new framework is in place. During this period, Norges Bank shall not decide on observation or exclusion of companies,” the spokesperson said. “The fund is broadly invested in line with the mandate we have been given by the ministry of finance,” they continued, adding that the ministry “sets a benchmark index that determines which markets and companies the fund is to be invested in, and the Israeli market is part of that index.”
The review is expected to conclude by October ۱۵.
“In our view, this [period] leaves Norway unable to fully meet its obligation to prevent serious violations of international law,” said Harlem.
Pal Nygaard, professor at BI Norwegian Business School and a member of Historians for Palestine, a group which examines the companies in question, was disappointed to see the fund’s continued investments in NextVision.
“They didn’t sell the stocks when it’s thoroughly documented that the company is contributing to Israel’s war crimes,” he said. “The most reasonable thing to do would be to say that Israel is a rogue state that is committing genocide, and exclude all Israeli companies.”
ICL Group, of which Norway holds a ۱.۶۵ percent shareholder stake, also contributes to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab Desert, as several mining projects are displacing them into small areas, according to Historians for Palestine. It also supplies fertilisers to illegal settlements.
Harlem warned that the portfolio may signal to financial market players that they “do not need to conduct thorough human rights and conflict-related due diligence regarding how their investments contribute to – or are linked to – war crimes and other serious violations of international law”.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in ۲۰۲۲, Norway froze the fund’s investments in Russian companies.
Samandar called for the same treatment for Israel, which is similarly accused of war crimes.
The fund should not be a “passive observer of violations of international law,” he said. “It should be structured and managed so that Norwegian capital does not contribute to them.”
Norway recognised the Palestinian state in ۲۰۲۴ and backs a two-state solution.
A spokesperson at Norway’s finance ministry told Al Jazeera that “investments in areas affected by war and conflict require enhanced due diligence”, and that assessments of individual companies are made by Norges Bank and an ethics council “independently of the ministry”.
In January, Norway’s Palestine Committee filed a formal complaint, accusing Norges Bank, the fund and the authority that handles it, of serious crimes including genocide.
The case was dismissed, but the committee is appealing.
“If Norway expects other states and companies to respect international law, it must also ensure that Norwegian public money does not contribute to the occupation and oppression of Palestinians,” said Samandar.
