Norway MPs reject name to forestall wealth fund making an investment in occupied Palestinian territories

Politicians in Norway have rejected calls to forestall making an investment its sovereign wealth fund – the most important on the planet – within the occupied Palestinian territories in spite of emotional scenes outside and inside parliament.

The £1.4tn oil fund, which is administered by way of Norges Bank in keeping with laws set by way of MPs, is the most important European investor in Israel’s profession.

Among the 45 proposals voted on in Wednesday’s annual overview of the oil fund – a number of of which associated with Israel – was once to instruct Norges Bank to divest the oil fund from corporations that give a contribution to Israel’s unlawful profession and what the proposals mentioned had been Israeli struggle crimes.

The vote got here after dramatic scenes in Stortinget (parliament) in Oslo as a number of MPs gave speeches about Gaza via tears. One flesh presser, Marian Hussein, was once requested by way of the speaker to take away her keffiyeh, which she saved on in protest. During the talk, sounds of shouting protesters out of doors echoed within the chamber.

Hussein, the deputy chief of the Socialist Left birthday party, which introduced ahead one of the most proposals, mentioned in reaction: “Speaker, I will not take off my Palestinian scarf. Those standing outside are shouting right now: ‘Stop Norwegian involvement, withdraw the oil fund.’”

She added: “Why do we still show double standards in this hall? Why are some people worth less than others?”

After quoting from a well-known Norwegian poem, Du Må Ikke Sove (Dare Not Sleep) from 1936, she cited Jens Stoltenberg, the previous Nato secretary common who’s now the finance minister in Norway’s minority Labour govt.

“We are a small nation which constantly talks about the need for a world order,” she mentioned. “We have a finance minister who has been a former Nato chief and prime minister. He knows very well what this means in foreign policy.”

During the talk, Stoltenberg mentioned Norway had “an established ethical regime for the fund”. He added: “We divest from the companies that contribute to Israel’s breach of international law, but we do not divest from all companies that are present on the ground.”

After the vote, Hussein instructed the Guardian: “I’m incredibly disappointed. This should have been the easiest vote of our lives, especially for the Labour party and the Labour government.”

She added: “We are not backing down. Shortly before the government recognised the state of Palestine, they voted against it in parliament. We will continue to put pressure on the other parties together with the massive movement in civil society.”

Before the afternoon vote, crowds accrued out of doors parliament for a protest organised by way of a number of organisations together with the Palestinian Committee, the Action Group for Palestine and Amnesty International Norway.

Norway has performed a historic function within the area, together with by way of facilitating the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians that resulted in a leap forward deal in 1993. Last yr it recognised the Palestinian state, certainly one of a minority of European international locations to take action.

Last week, Norway’s world building minister, Åsmund Aukrust, instructed the Guardian that Israel was once surroundings a deadly precedent for world human rights legislation violations in Gaza that was once making the arena extra bad.

Line Khateeb, the chief of the Palestine Committee of Norway, mentioned the vote was once a possibility for politicians “to show that international law matters and that they do not want to make Norway complicit in the Israeli genocide and colonisation”.

Stoltenberg, she mentioned, “needs to take responsibility” and he or she referred to as at the oil fund to divest from Israel because it had carried out from all Russian corporations straight away after the invasion of Ukraine. She added: “Even though the Norwegian oil fund is Europe’s largest investor in the Israeli occupation, Stoltenberg claims that the current guidelines are good enough. That is appalling and needs to change.”

The discovery of one of the most global’s greatest offshore oilfields off the Norwegian coast in 1969 and the large earnings that got here from promoting it dramatically modified Norway’s potentialities, bringing fast financial expansion.

Norway’s oil fund, formally referred to as the Government Pension Fund Global, was once established in 1990 to maintain revenues for long term generations within the wisdom that the oil provide will in the future run out. The first deposit was once made to the fund in 1996 and because then it’s been invested best out of doors Norway.