By Muskan Arora
The $1.9Tr Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has divested from 11 Israeli companies and is terminating all external manager mandates in the country, citing escalating humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
“These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances,” said Nicolai Tangen, NBIM’s chief executive officer, in a press release. “The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis. We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened.”
As of June 30, 2025, the fund held stakes in 61 Israeli companies, according to a statement from the fund. Eleven of those firms fell outside the Ministry of Finance’s equity benchmark index — making them ineligible under the fund’s stricter investment criteria moving forward. Those companies have been excluded from the fund following recommendations by the Council on Ethics, which cited an “unacceptable risk of contribution to serious norm violations” tied to business activity in the occupied territories.
NBIM said it will now limit investments in Israel to companies included in the equity benchmark index, but emphasized that inclusion alone does not guarantee investment. “We will not be invested in all Israeli companies in the index,” the statement said.
The move comes after years of behind-the-scenes engagement. Since 2020, Norges has been in contact with more than 60 companies regarding its concerns. Among these contacts, 39 engagements were specifically related to operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
The return on the fund’s equity investments was 6.7%, the return on its fixed income investments was 3.3%, and the investments in unlisted real estate returned 4%. The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was 9.4%, as of Aug. 12, 2025.
As of June 30, 2025, 70.6% of the fund was invested in equities, 27.1% in fixed income, 1.9% in unlisted real estate, and 0.4% in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.
