Two Israeli firms have been excluded from Norway’s USD 450 billion sovereign wealth fund for building Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Both the Africa Israel Investments holding firm and its construction subsidiary Danya Cebus have been blacklisted by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said that constructing Israeli settlements on occupied land “is a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war”.
Norway’s repository of oil revenues, the Government Pension Fund Global, follows strict guidelines set out by the government. The ministry also denies investment to companies that damage the environment, abuse workers’ rights, and make nuclear weapons or cluster bombs.
The parties in Norway’s centre-left government coalition largely support the exclusions, which now total almost 50 firms. Opposition Progress Party member Christian Tybring-Gjedde, however, said fund officials are caving in to Socialist Left Party demands to shun Israeli businesses.
“They are very anti-Israel, and this is one of their favourite pursuits, criticising Israel for everything,” said Tybring-Gjedde in a Reuters report. He added that the ministry should also cut investments in the Arab world, where he said minorities also face human rights violations, if they want to be consistent.
Senior adviser for the wealth fund’s Council on Ethics, Aslak Schanke, however, pointed out that Norwegian investments in Israel have increased tenfold to NOK 2bn (USD 320.8m) over the last three years. “In no way is there a boycott of Israeli firms,” he said. “That is an absurd claim. We look at what companies do, not where they are from.”
Africa Israel says it is no longer building West Bank settlements and has called the actions of the pension fund “baseless”.
“We are not claiming that they are necessarily involved in this today,” countered Schanke. “We believe that given the past practices of the company, there is an unacceptable risk of a future contribution to such activities.”
The blacklisting of companies that are undesirable by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance is a step in the right direction. Many more institutions should take a stand and learn about a company before it engages with them, the bottom line is not all there is.
Norway, a country which prides itself on its peace building credentials, was the world’s seventh largest exporter of weapons components, ammunition and tanks in 2006, according to recent figures based on earnings from Norway’s Central Statistics Bureau (SSB)
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42650
Explosive Growth in Norwegian Weapons Export
fredag 20. februar 2009 16:12
The value of Norwegian weapons export increased in 2008 by all of 44.5%. For the first time the figures for foreign trade show that the export amounts to more than 3 billion kroners (354.000 euros). That is 954 million kroners more than in 2007. The weapons export to the USA alone has increased by no less than 85.6% and is now 1.7 billion kroners (199.000 euros).
http://www.norwatch.no/200902201249/english/weapon/explosive-growth-in-norwegian-weapons-export.html
A little bit of ethic and morals please??
Or is it about a fairy tale again?? Play the fiddle and lets dance!!
Oh sorry for those who have missed your legs and arms, and for all those children who cant read but know how to hold a nice MADE IN NORWAY gun…
Norway is one of the first producers of personal and short weapons, as it is a producer of many parts used to build bombs in third world countries. I bet they can now use that money to invest in producing weapons so they can end in the hands of the palestinian children being trained at kindergartens, the Hamas police to get the weapons they need to control and keep their dictature of massacring the palestinian civil population, and for talibans in afganistan and pregnant mothers to show their duty as suicide bombers. DID YOU KNOW THAT NORWAY IS MAKING A GREAT PROFIT IN THE PRODUCTION OF WEAPONS AND OTHER WARFARE PRODUCTS??