Norway's government said on Tuesday it had ordered a review of its sovereign wealth fund portfolio to ensure that Israeli companies contributing to the "occupation" of the West Bank or the war in Gaza were excluded from investments.
The review followed a report by the Aftenposten daily that said the $1.9 trillion fund had built a stake in 2023-24 in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets.
The fund's investment in the Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd group is worrying, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK.
"We must get clarification on this because reading about it makes me uneasy," Stoere said.
BSEL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund, took a 1.3% stake in BSEL in 2023 and raised this to 2.09% by the end of 2024, holding shares worth $15.2 million, according to the latest available NBIM records.
In light of Aftenposten's story and the security situation in Gaza and the West Bank, the central bank will now conduct a review of NBIM's Israeli holdings, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen told NRK that BSEL had not appeared on any lists of recommended exclusions, such as by the United Nations or the fund's own ethics council.
Norway's parliament in June rejected a proposal for the sovereign wealth fund to divest from all companies with activities in Palestinian territories.
Owning stakes in thousands of companies
The fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, held shares in 65 Israeli companies at the end of 2024, valued at $1.95 billion, its records show.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group in the last year, and its ethics council has said it is reviewing whether to recommend divesting holdings in five banks.