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Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, said he would no longer deal with two companies that sell equipment to the Israeli army because the equipment is perhaps used in the war in Gaza.
The two companies are the OSHKOSH Corporation, an American company mainly focused on trucks and military vehicles, and Thyssenkrupp, a German industrial company that makes a wide selection of products, ranging from elevators and industrial machines to warships.
“In June 2024, KLP learned of the UN reports that several named companies provided weapons or equipment to the army (Israeli army) and that these weapons are used in Gaza,” said Kiran Aziz, responsible for responsible investments in KLP KapapoForvaltning, in a statement provided in Al Jazeera.
“Our conclusion is that companies Oshkosh and Thyssenkrupp are contraveking our responsible investment directives,” the statement said.
“So we decided to exclude them from our investment universe.”
According to the pension fund, he had investments worth 1.8 million dollars in Oshkosh and nearly $ 1 million in Thyssenkrupp until June 2025.
KLP, founded in 1949 and the country’s largest retirement fund, oversees a fund worth around 114 billion dollars. It is a public pension fund belonging to municipalities and companies in the public sector, and has a pension plan which covers around 900,000 people, mainly municipal workers, according to its website.
Vehicles and warships
KLP said he had been in contact with the two companies before making his decision and that oshkosh confirmed that he had sold and continues to sell, equipment used by the army (Israeli army) in Gaza “, mainly vehicles and parts for vehicles.
Thyssenkrupp told KLP that “he had a long -term relationship with (the Israeli army)” and that he had delivered four SA’AR 6 type warships to the Israeli Navy from November 2020 to May 2021.
The German company also said that it intended to deliver a submarine to the Israeli navy later this year.
When asked by KLP which checks and counterweights were made with regard to the use of the equipment that companies have delivered, KLP said that OSHKOSH and Thyssenkrupp “had not documented the reasonable diligence necessary in relation to their potential complicity in humanitarian law”.
“Companies have the independent duty to exercise reasonable diligence in order to avoid the complicity of fundamental human rights violations and humanitarian law,” said Aziz.
Previous disinvestment
This is not the first time that the pension fund has deposited companies linked to any human rights violations.
In 2021, KLP Vessels of 16 companiesIncluding the Motorola telecommunications giant, which he concluded was linked to illegal Israeli colonies in occupied West Bank.
The pension fund said there was an “unacceptable risk that excluded companies contribute to the abuse of human rights in situations of war and conflict thanks to their links with Israeli establishments in occupied West Bank”.
The same year, KLP also said that it disabled the Indian group and the Adani Ports logistics group because of its links with the Military Government of Myanmar.
Last summer, KLP Also sold of the American company Caterpillar. In an opinion article for Al Jazeera, Aziz du KLP wrote that the Bulldozers of Caterpillar undergo adjustments in Israel by military and local companies, and are then used in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“The constant use of these armed bulldozers in the occupied Palestinian territory has led to a series of human rights warnings from the United Nations agencies, and non -governmental organizations in the past two decades on the involvement of the company in the demolition of Palestinian houses and infrastructure”.
“It is therefore impossible to assert that the company has implemented adequate measures to avoid getting involved in future violations of standards.”
The latest decision is based on a series of similar decisions among several major investment funds in Europe which have reduced links with Israeli companies for their involvement in the war in Gaza or due to links with illegal Israeli colonies in occupied West Bank.
In May, the sovereign heritage fund of Norway, the largest in the world, said it would unfold From retail and PAZ energy to Israel due to the participation of the company to provide infrastructure and fuel to illegal Israeli establishments.
This came after a previous decision in December of last year to sell all the actions she had in another Israeli company, Bezeq, for her services provided to the illegal colonies.
Other pension funds as well as wealth funds have also been, in recent years, have distant companies accused of having allowed or cooperated with the illegal occupation of Israel of the West Bank or his war against Gaza.
In February 2024, Denmark’s largest retirement fund sold several Israeli banks and companies because the fund feared that its investments could be used to finance the colonies in the West Bank.
Six months later, the United Kingdom’s largest pension fund (USS) in the United Kingdom, said that it would sell all of its investments related to Israel because of its war against Gaza. The fund, which totals about $ 79 billion, said it would sell its $ 101 million investments after its members’ pressure.
