Ethical Danish pension fund considers excluding Israel over human rights
28/05/2021 15:38
* Fund looks after pensions of Denmark's teachers, lecturers
* Fund is concerned about Israel's human rights record
* Members "deeply divided on this topic" - chief executive
By Marc Jones
LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) - A Danish pension fund, which
prides itself on being the world's strictest on human rights
violations, says it is considering adding Israel to a long list
of countries it excludes following this month's conflict with
Palestinians.
The $22 billion Akademiker looks after the pensions of
Denmark's teachers and university lecturers and has received
growing attention over the last year for ditching https://akademikerpension.dk/ansvarlighed/vi-ekskluderer/eksklusionslister/eksklusionsliste-lande
China's government bonds, and Saudi Arabia's following the
murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
It holds about 190 million Danish crowns worth ($31 million)
of Israeli government and quasi-government bonds but has growing
concerns - as it does about Russia, Qatar, Egypt and the United
Arab Emirates, which are also not on its banned list.
"We are concerned about the human rights record (of Israel),
but also have to acknowledge that our members are deeply divided
on this topic," the fund's chief executive, Jens Munch Holst,
told Reuters.
The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to launch an
international investigation into allegations of crimes committed
in the 11 days of hostilities this month between Israel and the
Hamas Islamist group in Gaza. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2NE0P7
Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human
rights, told the council that deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza may
constitute war crimes and that Hamas had violated international
humanitarian law by firing rockets into Israel.
Israel rejected the resolution adopted by the Geneva forum
and said it would not cooperate. Hamas, which governs Gaza,
called the group's actions "legitimate resistance".
If the Danish fund opts to exclude Israel, it will join
sovereign wealth funds in Norway and New Zealand in backing away
from some Israel investments.
Norway's fund said last week it had decided to exclude three
companies from its fund, Honeys Holdings, Shapir Engineering and
Industry and Mivne Real Estate, because of "unacceptable risks"
that the firms contributed to systematic violations of human or
individual rights. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nO9N2F1012
The manager of the NZ Super Fund said in March it had
excluded five Israeli-owned banks on responsible investment
grounds.
Akademiker's Holst said that as Palestinian authorities
haven’t issued sovereign debt it was not "in scope" for
potential exclusion.
($1 = 6.1013 Danish crowns)
(Additional reporting by Tom Arnold, Editing by Timothy
Heritage)
((marc.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)20 7513 4042; Reuters
Messaging: marc.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net Twitter
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