The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has quit its investments in U.S. machinery manufacturer Caterpillar and five Israeli banks following a review of the companies’ ties to conflict in the West Bank.
The executive board of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund on behalf of the Norwegian population and is valued at around $2 trillion, said Monday there was an “unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict.” The decision was based on recommendations from its ethics council, it said.
NBIM said that bulldozers manufactured by New York-listed Caterpillar were “being used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property.” NBIM had a $2.4 billion stake in the company at the end of 2024, representing around 1.2% ownership. CNBC has contacted Caterpillar for comment.
TIL Caterpiller is an even more awful company.
Caterpillar is an infamous case because their bulldozer crushed American activist Rachel Corrie to death in the 2000’s. There was a big lawsuit over it but the US decided that it was a-okay for an American company to keep sending bulldozers to the Israeli military because it would “interfere with foreign policy”
https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/corrie-et-al-v-caterpillar
I believe this same ruling was used as a precedent to strike down the arms export lawsuit against Genocide Joe when he was president.
I was just meaning the destruction of so much habitat in the US for suburban sprawl. And then add all this shit. Evil.
The same fund was recently caught having invested in an Israeli company that’s made bank during the war, maintaining Israeli jets making bombing runs on Gaza.
This is fantastic news. Many pensions funds are quietly divesting and hopefully this will encourage more to do so. It is disgusting to be investing in companies that are funding the outrages to humanity that Israel is committing every day.
it is only a good look for companies to not associate with genocide enablers.
Bare minimum that should’ve been done almost 2 years ago, or really years before that honestly.
Sure as shit beats what’s going on here in the US where they’re working on making it against the law to divest from Israel
