TEL AVIV, December 15, 2015 (WAFA) –
Denmark’s largest private pension fund, FPA Pension, with assets close to $50
billion, is withdrawing its investments from the international construction
materials corporation Heidelberg Cement, due to its indirect involvement in
exploiting the natural resources of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli daily
Haaretz said.
FPA said it doesn’t want to contribute
in any way to illegal activity in the West Bank, adding that during 2015 it
examined divesting from companies that exploit natural resources in
contravention of international law.
The decision is a relatively
exceptional way of divesting from companies that operate in the West Bank,
Haaretz said.
It is a third party boycott – not a
boycott against a settlement product or an Israeli company that produces it,
but against international entities or companies that have economic ties with
Israeli companies that operate in the occupied West Bank.
FPA Pension is the second Scandinavian
insurance company to divest from Heidelberg Cement in the past half year.
In June, the large Norwegian insurance
company KLP also divested from Heidelberg Cement because it operates quarries
in the West Bank through Israeli subsidiaries and is thus exploiting the
national resources of an occupied area in violation of the Geneva
Convention.
Heidelberg Cement is one of the largest
construction materials companies in the world, operating in more than 40
countries.
In 2007 it acquired the British firm
Hanson, which, through its subsidiary, Hanson Israel, operates quarries in Area
C of the West Bank, which is under total Israeli control.
Under The Hague Convention and the
Fourth Geneva Convention, which define the “laws of occupation,” it is
forbidden to use the natural resources of an occupied area if the profits from
this benefit the occupiers and not the residents of the area.
To be noted, Israeli settlement
activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights, both
occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law.
The settler population in the West Bank
is estimated at 531,000: in late 2012 the population of the West Bank
settlements was 341,400; in late 2011 there were 190,423 individuals living in
Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
B’Tselem the Israeli human rights group
said, “The settlements have been allocated vast areas, far exceeding their
built-up sections. These areas have been declared closed military zones by
military orders and are off limits to Palestinians, except by special permit.
In contrast, Israeli citizens, Jews from anywhere in the world and tourists may
all freely enter these areas.”
According to a report by Applied
Research Institute (ARIJ), “The consecutive Israeli governments adopted a
policy to acquire much of the West Bank lands to build and expand the Israeli
settlements by employing different methods; most renowned of which, “Security,”
which is also, how Israel was able to restrict Palestinian towns’ development
on the remaining areas.”
M.N/M.H
