Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has seen the value of its remaining investments in Israeli companies rise as campaign groups and charities call for further divestment over the war in Gaza.
The fund, the world’s largest, reduced its Israeli holdings from 61 companies to 29 last year, citing “the serious humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. It has made no new investments in Israeli firms since then, but returns from its remaining holdings reached $2.4 billion in the first half of 2026, up 15.7 per cent from the end of 2025.
Rami Samandar, head of Norway’s Palestine Committee, said the fund represented “enormous economic and political power” and should not hold stakes in companies alleged to support Israel’s military activity, occupation or related infrastructure.
“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,” he said.
Launched in the 1990s to manage profits from Norway’s oil and gas industry, the so-called oil fund is managed by Norges Bank.
The value of its holding in Israeli drone-camera company NextVision Stabilized Systems increased to $25.9 million from $21 million in 2025. Israel Aerospace Industries, the country’s largest aerospace and defence company, buys equipment from NextVision and supplies the military.
The fund also holds shares in One Software Technologies. Research group Who Profits alleges that the company provides maintenance services for the biometric identification system used at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli Civil Administration.
Another investment, Formula Systems, provides software services to the Israeli military through its subsidiary TSG, according to the material cited by campaigners.
Norway’s oil fund ethical framework under review
Mads Harlem, an international lawyer at Save the Children Norway, said the fund should divest from NextVision unless the company had taken adequate steps to prevent its products contributing to breaches of international humanitarian law.
A spokesperson for Norges Bank Investment Management said the fund’s ethical framework was being reviewed. Temporary ethical guidelines and changes to its management mandate had been adopted by the finance ministry, meaning Norges Bank could not decide on placing companies under observation or excluding them until a new framework was in place.
“The fund is broadly invested in line with the mandate we have been given by the ministry of finance,” the spokesperson said. The ministry sets a benchmark index determining the markets and companies in which the fund invests, and the Israeli market is included in that index.
The review is expected to be completed by October 15. Harlem said the interim arrangements left Norway unable to fully meet its responsibility to prevent serious violations of international law.
Pal Nygaard, a professor at BI Norwegian Business School and member of Historians for Palestine, said he was disappointed that the fund had retained its NextVision investment despite what he described as documentation of the company’s contribution to Israeli war crimes.
Historians for Palestine has also accused ICL Group, in which Norway holds a 1.65 per cent stake, of contributing to the displacement of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab Desert through mining projects. The group says ICL also supplies fertilisers to illegal settlements.
Norway’s finance ministry said investments in areas affected by war and conflict required enhanced due diligence. It added that individual companies were assessed independently by Norges Bank and an ethics council.
Norway froze the fund’s investments in Russian companies after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Samandar called for Israel to receive similar treatment, arguing that the fund should not be a “passive observer of violations of international law”.
Norway recognised the Palestinian state in 2024 and supports a two-state solution. In January, the Palestine Committee filed a formal complaint accusing Norges Bank, the fund and the authority responsible for it of serious crimes including genocide. The complaint was dismissed and is being appealed.
