Norway's largest pension fund has unloaded its significant $69 million investment in America's Caterpillar company over concerns about its role in Gaza.
Caterpillar is one of a number of American companies that have been targeted in the Mideast over perceived support for Israel in the Gaza conflict that has killed some 37,000 Palestinians.
Texas-based Caterpillar Inc. has been accused of providing heavy machinery being used to build illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza — and to bury the Palestinian war dead in bulldozed mass graves.
KLP sold off is investment in Caterpillar earlier this month after the company failed to provide "satisfactory assurances" that it was taking action to block use of its equipment by the Israeli military against Palestinians in violation of international law, according to a statement from KLP, a $90 billion pension fund managing retirement assets for more than 500,000 Norwegian city, health and other public sector workers.
"For a long time, Caterpillar has supplied bulldozers and other equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure to clear the way for Israeli settlements," Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP, said in a statement.
"It has also been alleged that the company's equipment is being used by the Israeli Defense Force ... [in] its military campaign in Gaza. Since the company cannot provide us with assurances that it is doing anything in this regard, we have decided to exclude the company from investment," Aziz added.
KLP officials said they have failed to obtain required assurances in a dialogue with the company over several months concerning the risk that Caterpillar is "contributing to human rights abuses and violation of international law," said the statement.
Caterpillar could not immediately be reached for comment on KLP's divestiture.
KLP has refused to invest in some 200 companies because of evidence of human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and other "unacceptable risks."
Three years ago KLP excluded Chicago-based telecom equipment company Motorola among other corporations for their links to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
