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Norway Said to Reject Calls for Blanket Ban by Wealth Fund on Companies in Gaza, West Bank
An armed police officer guards the main entrance to the Norwegian parliament in Oslo, Norway April 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche
Norway‘s parliament is poised to reject campaigners’ calls to instruct its $1.8 trillion wealth fund to boycott any company selling products and services in the Palestinian territories, according to a person familiar with the process.
A majority in the Norwegian parliament’s finance committee has decided that only companies that can be linked to the violation of international law should be excluded from the fund‘s portfolio, not just any companies with a presence in these areas, the person said.
The International Court of Justice said last year Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian territories” was illegal and it should pull out as soon as possible, in a ruling that Israel rejected as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided.
Currently, the fund, which operates under ethical guidelines set by the Norwegian parliament, has blacklisted 11 companies for assisting Israel’s policies in the territories, the last of which was Israeli petrol station chain Paz earlier this month.
At the end of last year, the fund had just over $2 billion invested in 65 Israeli companies, or 0.1 percent of its total.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the fund has faced growing pressure to divest from Israeli companies and all companies active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
That would effectively force it to sell billions of dollars in stakes in major Western brands, some of which have already faced consumer boycott calls especially in Muslim-majority countries because they were perceived as friendly to Israel.
Campaigners want the Norwegian government to take the same action on Israel-linked investments as it did on Russian ones in 2022, when three days after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine it instructed the fund to dispose of all of its holdings in Russia.
However, the decision by the parliamentary finance committee means no blanket ban on Israeli firms or on multinationals with global sales only because their products and services are available in Palestinian territories.
“If a company sells a generic product, which Israeli settlers buy, then this should not be sufficient to sell the fund out of the company,” said the person familiar with the committee’s decision, adding it would constitute a wider interpretation of the guidelines.
“But if we are speaking of specific products for, say, surveillance that are made specifically for the needs of Israeli settlers, then that is something completely different.”
The committee’s decision is part of its assessment of the government’s annual filing on the wealth fund, which is due to be debated in parliament on June 4, with a vote expected the same day.
Lawmakers are expected to vote along their parties’ lines as set in the parliamentary finance committee’s conclusions.
The decision will be closely watched, given Norway‘s fund, which owns 1.5 percent of the world’s listed shares across 9,000 companies, is seen as a leader in the field of investing focused on environmental, social and governance issues.
The finance committee also decided the fund should maintain a ban on investments in defense contractors that make components for nuclear weapons, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or Airbus.
As Reuters earlier reported, political parties have debated whether to remove the ban given the changed security environment created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the need to develop the Western defense industry.
But ultimately a majority of the finance committee decided against, concerned that its lifting would make managing the fund‘s ethical risk more complex.
The fund already owns shares in defense companies that sell weapons to Israel, including Germany’s Rheinmetall and Italy’s Leonardo, but not in the larger ones, like Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman.
($1 = 10.2958 Norwegian crowns)
The post Norway Said to Reject Calls for Blanket Ban by Wealth Fund on Companies in Gaza, West Bank first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Has Accepted Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Proposal, Foreign Minister Says
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a press conference with the Danish Foreign Minister (not pictured) in Jerusalem, Sept. 7, 2025. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard/via REUTERS
Israel has accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal from US President Donald Trump, Israel‘s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest, Saar said that Israel was ready to accept a full deal ending the war that would include the release of hostages and Hamas laying down its arms.
According to a senior Israeli official, the latest US proposal calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.
Hamas said it was studying the latest US ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday with a warning from President Donald Trump that it was the Islamist terror group’s “last chance.”
The war began with an assault by Hamas-led fighters on southern Israel in October 2023. The attackers killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza. Most of the hostages were released in ceasefires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the Palestinian terrorist group has kept others as a bargaining chip.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.
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IAEA’s Grossi to Iran: Not Much Time Left in Talks on Nuclear Inspections
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
Time is running out in talks between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran on how to fully resume inspections in the Islamic Republic, the watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday, adding that he hoped the discussions would conclude within days.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has not had access to Iran‘s key nuclear facilities since the United States and Israel bombed them in June. Iran passed a law after the attacks suspending cooperation with the IAEA and saying any inspections had to be approved by its Supreme National Security Council.
The IAEA and Iran are now in talks on the “modalities” of a full resumption of inspections, though Grossi says that does not alter Iran‘s duty to allow verification measures such as inspections as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“There is still time, but not much. Always enough when there is good faith and a clear sense of responsibility,” Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
“Progress has been made. It is my sincere hope that within the next few days it will be possible to come to a successful conclusion of these discussions in order to facilitate the resumption, the full resumption, of our indispensable work with Iran,” he added.
Their talks are taking place against the backdrop of Europe’s top three powers having initiated a 30-day process on Aug. 28 to re-impose sanctions on Iran. The curbs were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that unraveled after President Donald Trump pulled the US out of it in 2018.
Those three powers – France, Britain and Germany, known as the E3 – have said they will go ahead with re-imposing sanctions under the so-called “snapback” process unless IAEA inspections fully resume in Iran, and Tehran accounts for its large stock of near-weapons-grade uranium and resumes nuclear talks with the United States.
“I am confident that with these practical steps [on inspections] in place, other important diplomatic consultations and processes will find a more promising ground upon which to advance towards positive outcomes,” Grossi said, apparently referring to broader diplomacy such as Iran-E3 discussions.
In Tehran, Iran‘s foreign ministry said the talks with the IAEA were “positive” but had not yet reached a conclusion and that no specific time frame was determined for the next round of talks.
“On Saturday, the third round of negotiations ended and their results are currently being reviewed in Tehran by relevant authorities and we will announce the next steps when this review is finalized,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a weekly press conference on Monday.
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Israel Vows ‘Hurricane’ of Strikes on Gaza to Force Hamas to Accept Surrender Demand
A missile falls towards a building during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Israel said it would step up airstrikes on Gaza on Monday in a “mighty hurricane,” to serve as a last warning to Hamas that it will destroy the enclave unless the terrorist group accepts a demand to free all hostages and surrender.
Residents said Israeli forces had bombed Gaza City from the air and blown up old, armored vehicles in its streets. Hamas said it was studying the latest US ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday with a warning from President Donald Trump that it was the Islamist group’s “last chance.”
“A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.
“This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in the luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.”
Katz’s post appeared before reports of a shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed six people including one Spanish citizen. Hamas praised the attackers.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed a 12-floor block in the middle of Gaza City where dozens of displaced families had been housed, three hours after urging those inside and in hundreds of tents in the surrounding area to leave.
In a statement, the IDF said Hamas terrorists who had “planted intelligence gathering means” and explosive devices had been operating near the building and “have used it throughout the war to plan and advance terror attacks against IDF forces.”
According to a senior Israeli official, the latest US proposal calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.
Hamas has long said it intends to hold onto at least some hostages until negotiations are complete. It said in a statement it was committed to releasing them all with a “clear announcement of an end to the war” and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
OFFENSIVE IN GAZA CITY
Israel launched a major offensive last month on Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of residents are living in the ruins having returned after the city experienced the most intense fighting of the war’s early weeks nearly two years ago.
Residents said Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air and ground, and detonated decommissioned armored vehicles laden with explosives, destroying clusters of homes in the Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, and Tuffah neighborhoods.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump suggested a deal could come soon to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas. An Israeli official said Israel was “seriously considering” Trump’s proposal but did not elaborate.
The war began with an assault by Hamas-led fighters on southern Israel in 2023. The attackers killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza. Most of the hostages were released in ceasefires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the group has kept others as a bargaining chip.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.