\n<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s largest wealth fund has excluded Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel\u2019s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Norway\u2019s $2tn (\u00a31.5tn) fund said on Monday it had excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds.<\/p>\n
While the fund has already excluded more than 20 Israeli companies this year, Caterpillar is the first big US company to be removed through the wealth fund\u2019s ongoing review to ensure its investments do not contribute to violations of international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that Caterpillar\u2019s products are being used to commit extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law,\u201d said the fund\u2019s independent council on ethics.<\/p>\n
It added that the machinery was \u201cbeing used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property\u201d.<\/p>\n
The violations were taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, the council said, adding that \u201cthe company has also not implemented any measures to pre\u00advent such use\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs deliveries of the relevant machinery to Israel are now set to resume, the council considers there to be an unacceptable risk that Caterpillar is con\u00adtributing to serious violations of individuals\u2019 rights in war or conflict situations,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The fund said had not independently assessed all aspects of the recommendations but found them sufficiently substantiated that the criteria for exclusion have been fulfilled.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the executive board of the Norges Bank, which manages the fund, said it had decided to exclude six companies with connections to the West Bank and Gaza, and would name them once it had finished selling its stakes.<\/p>\n
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) held $2.1bn (\u00a31.6bn) of shares in Caterpillar, about 1.2% of all shares issued, as of 30 June, which made it the company\u2019s eighth-largest shareholder.<\/p>\n
The fund also excluded First International Bank of Israel, Bank Leumi Le-Israel, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Fibi Holdings and Bank Hapoalim, because of the five banks\u2019 financing of construction activities \u201cthat contribute to the maintenance of Israeli settlements\u201d, the council said in its recommendation.<\/p>\n
The fund said that the six groups were being excluded \u201cdue to an unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The total value of the divestments being made by the fund is close to $3bn.<\/p>\n Last year, the United Nations\u2019 top court found that Israeli settlements built on territory occupied in 1967 were illegal, a ruling that Israel called \u201cfundamentally wrong\u201d, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.<\/p>\n NBIM, which owns about 1.5% of the world\u2019s listed stocks, operates on a mandate set by Norway\u2019s parliament with ethical guidelines.<\/p>\n It is advised by an external ethics council, a public body set up by Norway\u2019s ministry of finance, which regularly assesses its portfolio of holdings and recommends companies for observation or exclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world\u2019s largest wealth fund has excluded Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel\u2019s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank. Norway\u2019s $2tn (\u00a31.5tn) fund said on Monday it had excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds. While the fund has already excluded more than<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3361,10902,1051,214,1907,4636,9351,3329],"class_list":{"0":"post-17933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-allegations","9":"tag-caterpillar","10":"tag-fund","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-norway","13":"tag-sells","14":"tag-stake","15":"tag-wealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}