The Danish Retirement Fund, “Akimimkir Pension”, announced today, Wednesday, that it will exclude the assets of the Israeli state, including the government -controlled companies, from its investment portfolio due to the war in Gaza and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to Reuters.
This is the latest decision made by a European Fund to reduce investments in Israel, after the recent withdrawal of investments by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, which is worth a trillion dollars.
The Danish Retirement Fund, which is valued at 157 billion Danish krns (24.7 billion dollars) and runs the pensions of teachers and professors of Danish universities, stated that the conflict is not in line with international humanitarian principles.
“The decision comes as an assessment of Israel’s ability to preserve human rights,” the Fund’s chief executive, Jeans Monach Holst, told Reuters.
Israel faced a widespread condemnation; Because of its military behavior in the Gaza Strip, where more than 65,000 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians, according to the local health authorities, as well as the famine there.
The highest United Nations court said last year that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and settlements there is illegal, and that it must withdraw as soon as possible, a ruling that Israel rejected, and described it as “wrong from its foundation” and biased.
