The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, pumped with oil money and one of the largest in the world at $400 billion, has sought to maintain strict standards of ethical investment. As The Economist reported:

The fund in which the Norwegian state stashes unspent revenue from oil and gas has exacting procedures to ensure it does not invest in firms involved in anything nasty, from human-rights abuses to environmental depravity. It sold its shares in Rio Tinto, the world’s second-biggest mining firm, for fear that a mine in which it owns a stake might have caused “severe environmental damage” in Indonesia. The fund also eschews Wal-Mart, a big American retailer, because of its hostility to unions.

Recently, upon recommendation by the government’s Council on Ethics and lobbying by a pro-Palestinian NGO; Norway has decided to divest from Israel’s Elbit Systems Ltd. for supplying surveillance for Israel’s Wall which encompasses 8% more Palestinian land.

“We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,” Norway’s Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement citing an International Court of Justice ruling that declared the Wall a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Norwegian authorities act in accordance with this,” Halvorsen added.

“The freedom of movement of the people living in the occupied territory has been unacceptably restricted,” Halvoren went on to state and that Elbit technologies are “one of the main components in the separation barrier and its associated control regime.”

“The surveillance system has been specially designed in close collaboration with the buyer and has no other applications. Furthermore Elbit is clearly aware of exactly where and how the system is intended to be used,” the statement went on.

Israel criticized the decision. The Israel’s foreign ministry summoned Norway’s Ambassador to Tel Aviv earlier this week. A spokesman for the foreign ministry stated that the office intended to issue a strong declaration against the decision initially, but decided instead on a more muted response after meeting the ambassador (Israel’s Foreign Minister Lieberman already strongly attacked Norway as “low” recently on a separate note.) The Norwegian Ambassador informed Israeli officials that the decision was limited to Elbit due to its involvement in the occupation and not a general boycott of Israel. In fact, the Norwegian fund is still an investor in over 40 Israeli companies and 2/3 of them are accused to profiting from the occupation. Whether Norway will divest from other occupation-supporting companies is not yet clear.

Nonetheless, Israel’s defense ministry strongly criticized Norway on Friday.