Ethical Danish Pension Fund Considers Excluding Israel Over Human Rights algemeiner.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from algemeiner.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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LONDON (Reuters) - A Danish pension fund, which prides itself on being the world’s strictest on human rights violations, says it is considering adding Israel to a long list of countries it excludes following this month’s conflict with Palestinians.
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian woman puts her hand on her head after returning to her destroyed house following Israel- Hamas truce, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
The $22 billion Akademiker looks after the pensions of Denmark s teachers and university lecturers and has received growing attention over the last year for ditching here China s government bonds, and Saudi Arabia s following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Tuesday, 25 May 2021 10:02 AM
[ Last Update: Tuesday, 25 May 2021 11:04 AM ] Palestinian policemen walk on the rubble of Arafat City, Gaza s police headquarters in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, following a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the besieged enclave. (Photo by AFP)
More voices are joining the chorus of international denunciation of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, particularly in the wake of the latest bloodshed committed by Israel forces against the besieged people of Gaza. One of the newest faces raising her voice against such hostilities is Oslo Bishop Kari Veiteberg.
Bishop Veiteberg believes a general boycott of Israel is the best means of non-violent resistance to the occupation of Palestine.
But they are statements, and when the Norwegian fund speaks, people tend to listen.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund took a principled step in May when it excluded two companies from investment because of their involvement in Israeli settlements on the West Bank.
Norges Bank Investment Management, which runs the $1.3 trillion Government Pension Fund Global fund, excluded Shapir Engineering and Industry and Mivne Real Estate KD on the advice of the Council on Ethics “due to unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to systematic violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict,” it said in a statement.
Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, which it captured in 1967 in the Six Day War, are widely considered illegal under international law.