OSLO, Norway — Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the
world's largest, has decided to dump two companies involved in the development
of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, citing concerns about potential rights
violations.
اضافة اعلان
The fund will divest its holdings in the companies "due
to unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to systematic violations of
individuals' rights in situations or war or conflict," Norway's central
bank said in a statement late Wednesday.
The companies are Shapir Engineering and Industry, a home
builder, and Mivne Real Estate, which rents industrial premises in the
Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, Norway's central bank said in a
statement late Wednesday.
Over 465,000 Israeli settlers now live in settlements in the
West Bank — three times more than when the Oslo peace accords between Israel
and the Palestinians were signed in the 1990s.
The fund, which has nearly 1.1 trillion euros ($1.3
trillion) in assets and is managed by the central bank, also added a Japanese
women's clothing and accessories maker to its blacklist over worries of human
rights abuses.
The fund's ethics committee recommended the fund exclude
Honeys Holdings after investigations found "numerous labor rights
violations" at two factories that the company owns in Myanmar.
In practice the exclusions mean the fund has sold its stakes
in the three companies and will not reinvest in them as long as the activities
continue.
The fund, which holds equity stakes in some 8,800 companies
worldwide, is governed by a set of ethical rules that prohibit it from
investing in companies guilty of serious human rights violations, those that
manufacture nuclear weapons, or produce coal or tobacco.
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