Al-Haq welcomes Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global’s (GPFG) decision to sell its shares in Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy, Israel’s largest operator of gas stations. The decision was based on the fact that the company “owns and operates” nine gas stations in the West Bank. GPFG’s Council on Ethics concluded that Paz Retail and Energy’s operations in supplying the settlements is illegal: “By operating infrastructure for the supply of fuel to the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Paz is contributing to their perpetuation . . . the settlements have been established in violation of international law, and their perpetuation constitutes an ongoing violation thereof.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recognised the illegality of such settlements in the Advisory Opinion (AO) of 2004, Legal Consequences of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Last year, the ICJ further ruled that the whole occupation –– therefore the mere presence of Israel in the Palestinian territory –– is illegal in its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. In light of this illegality, the ICJ found that Third States, like Norway “are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the [OPT]” (para. 279). To this end, States are under an obligation to “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory […] and to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the [OPT]” (para. 278).

As indicated by Al-Haq in a previous joint statement, following the Advisory Opinion, Norway’s Council on Ethics tightened its guidelines last year, setting forth a broader definition of unethical behaviour, which significantly has led to GPFG’s recent divestments from two companies linked to the Israel’s settlement enterprise, namely Bezeq and Paz Retail and Energy. The Council on Ethics recommended the divestments following its review of activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This review included the assessment of 65 companies in the fund’s portfolio working in diverse sectors supporting the occupation. While the council cleared most of these companies, it “did not say whether it had made more recommendations to divest.”

While Al-Haq staunchly welcomes the divestments as an important correction of international law, we note that this is a first step and further divestments need to urgently follow. The Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) coalition (2024), revealed that the GPFG ––the largest European investor globally –– was managing bonds and shares amounting to 1,186 million dollars (USD) of bondholding and 18,759 million USD of shareholding, in businesses operating in the settlements. By investing Norway’s public pension fund in Israel’s unlawful settlement enterprise, Norway is contributing to the violation of peremptory norms of international law, including the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the prohibitions of the use of force and of racial discrimination and apartheid.

Al-Haq welcomes Norway’s divestment of GPFG from Paz Retail and Energy and urges Norway to refrain from assisting Israel in maintaining and entrenching its settler colonial apartheid regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This requires full and total divestment of the GPFG from all settlement enterprises, and more broadly from all entities maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the OPT.