The value of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund’s investments in Israeli companies has increased, prompting ethical concerns among campaign groups and charities as the war in Gaza continues. The fund, the world’s largest, cut its Israeli holdings from 61 to 29 companies last year, citing “the serious humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. Although it has made no new investments in Israeli firms since, returns from its remaining holdings reached $2.4bn in the first half of 2026 – a rise of 15.7 percent since the end of 2025.
The fund “represents enormous economic and political power”, Rami Samandar, head of Norway’s Palestine Committee, told Al Jazeera. The value held in the Israeli drone-camera company NextVision Stabilized Systems has increased to $25.9m from $21m in 2025 over the period. The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel’s largest aerospace and defence company which supplies the military, buys equipment from NextVision.
The fund also profits from stakes in One Software Technologies, which, according to Who Profits, a group that researches companies involved in Israel’s occupation, provides the Israeli Civil Administration maintenance services for the biometric identification system deployed at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. Formula Systems, another company, provides software services to the Israeli military through its subsidiary TSG. Mads Harlem, an international lawyer at Save the Children Norway, told Al Jazeera that the fund should divest from NextVision so long as it “has not implemented adequate measures to prevent its products from contributing to violations of international humanitarian law”.
A spokesperson for Norges Bank Investment Management said the fund’s ethical framework is under review. The finance ministry has “adopted temporary ethical guidelines and changes to the management mandate that apply until a new framework is in place. During this period, Norges Bank shall not decide on observation or exclusion of companies,” the spokesperson said.
Pal Nygaard, professor at BI Norwegian Business School and a member of Historians for Palestine, a group which examines the companies in question, was disappointed to see the fund’s continued investments in NextVision. It also supplies fertilisers to illegal settlements. Harlem warned that the portfolio may signal to financial market players that they “do not need to conduct thorough human rights and conflict-related due diligence regarding how their investments contribute to – or are linked to – war crimes and other serious violations of international law”.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Norway froze the fund’s investments in Russian companies. Samandar called for the same treatment for Israel, which is similarly accused of war crimes. The fund should not be a “passive observer of violations of international law,” he said.
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