The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) announced divestment from two Israeli companies, Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus, due to their involvement in the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
This comes only a year after the GPFG divested from Elbit Systems Ltd., the Israeli defense firm involved in the construction of the Separation Wall.
Danya Cebus has carried out construction projects, as a hired contractor, in Har Homa, an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, and in the settlements Ma’aleh Adumim, Modi’in Ilit, and Adam, according to Israeli news daily Haaretz. At the end of 2009 the Norwegian fund owned shares worth 7.2 million Norwegian crowns (€1.16 million) in Africa Israel Investments.
“Several United Nations Security Council resolutions and an International Court of Justice advisory opinion have concluded that the construction of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is prohibited under the [Geneva] Convention,” said Norway’s Minister of Finance Sigbjørn Johnsen.
“I have therefore accepted the recommendation of the Council on Ethics and am excluding Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus from the fund’s investment portfolio,” Johnsen announced.
The Palestinians villages of Bilin and Jayyous along with 11 national and international networks from Europe, Palestine, Israel and the US have been campaigning for divestment from the companies. They sent letters calling on Norway to comply with its ethical guidelines and divest from its pension fund holdings in the company Africa-Israel, owned by the controversial diamond magnate Lev Leviev, according to the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement.
“The Council on Ethics emphasizes that the construction of settlements in occupied areas is a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,” a statement from the council said.
Norway’s state pension fund, valued at about $450 billion, also divested from Samling Global, a Malaysian timber firm accused of rampant environmental destruction in Borneo. “The Council on Ethics has assessed Samling Global, and concluded that the company’s forest operations in the rainforests of Sarawak and Guyana contribute to illegal logging and severe environmental damage,” a government statement said.
Due to the fund’s thorough ethical regulations, in June 2006 Norway divested about $430 million worth of shares from Wal-Mart Stores, for “serious and systematic” labor violations in several countries, and from Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, for dumping copper tailings in a New Guinea river, according to Fortune Magazine. The state fund has also divested from GenCorp, an American company that produces nuclear weapons, a number of American corporations involved in tobacco productions.
“We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,” said Norway’s finance minister Kristin Halvorsen in 2009.
Mohammed Khatib, a member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements commented on the recent divestment saying, “We’ve achieved another major victory in our struggle of protests and boycotts against Israeli apartheid. On 21 April 2009 we wrote the government of Norway calling for them to divest from Africa Israel because it is one company that built the settlement of Mattityahu East on Bil’in’s land, and they responded that they were investigating.”
“It is victories like this that demonstrate our commitment to continue our struggle for justice, despite Israel’s efforts to crush it through a campaign of arrests and intimidation, targeting activists like Abdallah Abu Rahmah from Bil’in who will be sentenced tomorrow for being an organizer,” Khatib said, before Abu Rahmah was arrested.
Jamal Juma’, Coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign and a member of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee, said, “We appreciate the Norwegian Finance Ministry’s commitment to upholding international law through continuing to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. It is a significant milestone in the Palestinian-led BDS movement aimed at holding Israel accountable for its violations of international and humanitarian law.”