No, not at all! This isn’t some Antisemitic or Jewish-hatred-inciting propaganda that has led to all of this but actually a strong, concrete reason that has led to the venerable Sovereign Wealth Fund of Norway distancing itself from no fewer than 3 Israeli firms that had, so far, been on the fund’s portfolio. So the question is what is this development all about and why did this happen in the first place?
Even though there are several other questions that strike the mind, one of them being whether there’s been some sort of anti-Israel stance that has been taken of late?
But truth certainly is while the above can be simply assumptions, what isn’t, in the first place is that no fewer than 3 separate Israeli companies that were on the portfolio of the respected Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund have now been pushed aside.
PGM Capital
The fund doesn’t want anything to do with them as it appears.
So what really happened and are other Oil companies too, part of this recent Norway move?
Apparently, the world’s largest sovereign fund also excluded three Israeli firms, namely – Elco (ELCO.TA), its subsidiary Electra (ELTR.TA) and Ashtrom (ASHG.TA) because of their links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
This, for the longest time, has been an unsettled territorial dispute between Israel and West Bank, a war that rages on with Hamas, the militant organisation carrying out deadly attacks on the Jewish state only to face massive retaliation in the form of firm Israeli rebuttals.
None of these three Israeli companies that have been named here have reported back on the story, a tale that has caught the attention of not only those who follow Middle East affairs or Geopolitics, but also those who note the current chaos happening in the realm of economics, investment and business affairs.
Exclusions are based on advice from the fund’s ethics watchdog and holdings are sold before any announcement is made.
Here are some more interesting insights that cover the story in great detail as sought from the Al Jazeera:
The council considers that ONGC through its operations has accepted a risk of contributing to serious abuse committed to enable oil production in the country,” said the watchdog, formally known as the Council on Ethics.
“The council also takes into consideration that actors who are directly or indirectly responsible for grave violations are providing services to the joint ventures and are responsible for the security at the oil fields that the joint ventures operate.”
In Israel, industrial group Elco and its construction subsidiary Electra were excluded because Electra builds roads in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with Electra recently winning a tender for the construction of a major road project.
To sum it up, not just a big setback for the Israeli companies but also for India, which happens to have close ties to the Naftali Bennett-run country.