Norwegian Wealth Fund’s Divestment from Israeli Settlements Hailed

IQNA – A decision by the Norwegian wealth fund to divest from an Israeli company that provides telecommunications services to illegal settlements in the West Bank has been hailed by an American advocacy group.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcomed the move and also condemned a series of Israeli regime's war crimes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has sold all its shares in Israel’s Bezeq (BEZQ.TA) because it provides telecoms services to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In recent days, illegal Israeli settlers launched attacks on Palestinians near the West Bank city of Nablus, setting fire to buildings and vehicles. The settlers torched two homes, three vehicles and a grocery store in the towns of Huwwara and Beit Furik.

Also in Nablus, Israeli forces beat to death an elderly man on his own land.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli drone targeted and killed a soup kitchen chef. Over the past year, the Israeli military had reportedly detained him twice and released him both times.

Israeli air strikes on al-Mawasi camp in Gaza have killed at least 20 Palestinians and wounded dozens. At least five people, including four children, were also killed in an Israeli drone attack on a food distribution point and a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Palestinians in Gaza say Israel has been using small quadcopter drones, equipped with loudspeakers, to lure them out of their homes and then shoot them. “Quadcopters were emitting baby sounds, playing sounds of screaming women,” one witness said.

In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said:

“As the atrocities of the Israeli government continue, more nations are waking up and divesting from genocide. Indicted war criminal Netanyahu’s crimes against the Palestinian people are being exposed for the world to see. It is time for the Biden administration to stop enabling these horrors, end all military aid to the far-right Israeli government and force an immediate ceasefire.”

He noted that the Israeli military has reportedly advised its soldiers who invaded the Gaza Strip to avoid travelling abroad for fear of arrest in the aftermath of court orders issued by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

Source: Cair.com