Norway fund's ethics body reviews Israeli bank stakes over West Bank settler loans
OSLO/LONDON/JERUSALEM: The ethics watchdog for Norway's $1.9 trillion wealth fund is scrutinizing Israeli banks' practice of underwriting Israeli settlers' housebuilding commitments in the occupied West Bank in a review that could prompt up to $500 million in divestments.The Council on Ethics, a public body set up by the Ministry of Finance, has, however, decided not to object to the Fund's investments in accommodation platforms such as Airbnb that offer rentals in the Jewish settlements.The body checks that firms in the portfolio of the world's largest wealth fund meet ethical guidelines set by Norway's parliament.In an interview with Reuters on May 22, Council head Svein Richard Brandtzaeg said it was examining how Israeli banks offer guarantees that protect Israeli settlers' money if the company building their home in the West Bank should fold.Other practices are also being looked at 'but this is what we can see so far,' he said. 'That is what is well documented.' He declined to say how long the review would take.Brandtzaeg did not name the banks but, at the end of 2024, the fund owned about 5 billion crowns ($500 million) in shares in the five largest Israeli lenders, up 62 percent in 12 months, according to the latest data.The banks — Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Israel Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank and First International Bank of Israel — did not answer requests for comment.Since 2020, they have been included in a list of companies with ties to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories compiled by a UN mission assessing the implications for Palestinian rights.Latterly, investor concern has grown around the world over a 19-month-old Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip in response to an attack by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Many settlements are adjacent to Palestinian areas and some Israeli firms serve both Israelis and Palestinians.The United Nations' top court last year found that Israeli settlements built on territory seized in 1967 were illegal, a ruling that Israel called 'fundamentally wrong,' citing historical and biblical ties to the land.ACCOMMODATION RENTALS IN WEST BANK SETTLEMENTSIn mid-2024, the Council on Ethics began a new review of investments linked to the West Bank and Gaza.It examined 65 companies but recommended only petrol station chain Paz and telecoms company Bezeq for divestment, resulting in share sales.The Council also scrutinized some multinationals to see if their activities in the West Bank met its guidelines.Among them were the accommodation platforms, including Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdviser and Expedia, named on the UN list and accounting for about $3 billion in Fund investments.But the Council will not recommend watchlisting or divesting from those, Eli Ane Lund, head of its secretariat, said in the joint interview.'The company's activity must have some kind of influence on the (ethical) violations,' she said. 'It's not (enough) to have a connection, it has to have something to do with the violation, it must contribute to it.'The Council's recommendations go to the central bank, which is not obliged to follow them but generally does.If investments are sold, it is done gradually to avoid alerting markets, and the decision is then made public.Pro-Palestinian campaigners say the Council sets its bar too high for recommending divestments, and that the Norwegian government should instruct the fund to conduct a general divestment from Israel just as it did for Russia in 2022, three days after Moscow invaded Ukraine.But most lawmakers support the Council's approach, and are set on Wednesday to formally endorse a parliamentary finance committee's decision not to order a wholesale boycott.
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Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
A woman tried to call her mom in Iran. A robotic voice answered the phone
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: When Ellie, a British-Iranian living in the United Kingdom, tried to call her mother in Tehran, a robotic female voice answered instead. 'Alo? Alo?' the voice said, then asked in English: 'Who is calling?' A few seconds passed. 'I can't heard you,' the voice continued, its English imperfect. 'Who you want to speak with? I'm Alyssia. Do you remember me? I think I don't know who are you.' Ellie, 44, is one of nine Iranians living abroad — including in the U.K and US — who said they have gotten strange, robotic voices when they attempted to call their loved ones in Iran since Israel launched airstrikes on the country a week ago. They told their stories to The Associated Press on the condition they remain anonymous or that only their first names or initials be used out of fear of endangering their families. Five experts with whom the AP shared recordings said it could be low-tech artificial intelligence, a chatbot or a pre-recorded message to which calls from abroad were diverted. It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely. The messages are deeply eerie and disconcerting for Iranians in the diaspora struggling to contact their families as Israel's offensive targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites pounds Tehran and other cities. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of missiles and drones, and the government has imposed a widespread Internet blackout it says is to protect the country. That has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world, and their relatives from being able to reach them. 'I don't know why they're doing this,' said Ellie, whose mother is diabetic, low on insulin and trapped on the outskirts of Tehran. She wants her mother to evacuate the city but cannot communicate that to her. A request for comment sent to the Iranian mission to the UN was not immediately answered. Some of the messages are bizarre Most of the voices speak in English, though at least one spoke Farsi. If the caller tries to talk to it, the voice just continues with its message. A 30-year-old women living in New York, who heard the same message Ellie did, called it 'psychological warfare.' 'Calling your mom and expecting to hear her voice and hearing an AI voice is one of the most scary things I've ever experienced,' she said. 'I can feel it in my body.' And the messages can be bizarre. One woman living in the UK desperately called her mom and instead got a voice offering platitudes. 'Thank you for taking the time to listen,' it said, in a recording that she shared with the AP. 'Today, I'd like to share some thoughts with you and share a few things that might resonate in our daily lives. Life is full of unexpected surprises, and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while at other times they challenge us.' Not all Iranians abroad encounter the robotic voice. Some said when they try to call family, the phone just rings and rings. It's not clear who is behind this — or what the goal is Colin Crowell, a former vice president for Twitter's global policy, said it appeared that Iranian phone companies were diverting the calls to a default message system that does not allow calls to be completed. Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity expert based in the US, agreed and said the recordings appeared to be a government measure to thwart hackers, though there was no hard evidence. He said that in the first two days of Israel's campaign, mass voice and text messages were sent to Iranian phones urging the public to gear up for 'emergency conditions.' They aimed to spread panic — similar to mass calls that government opponents made into Iran during the war with Iraq in the 1980s. The voice messages trying to calm people 'fit the pattern of the Iranian government and how in the past it handled emergency situations,' said Rashidi, the director of Texas-based Miaan, a group that reports on digital rights in the Middle East. Mobile phones and landlines ultimately are overseen by Iran's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. But the country's intelligence services have long been believed to be monitoring conversations. 'It would be hard for anybody else to hack. Of course, it is possible it is Israeli. But I don't think they have an incentive to do this,' said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a tech entrepreneur and Internet freedom activist. Marwa Fatafta, Berlin-based policy and advocacy director for digital rights group Access Now, suggested it could be 'a form of psychological warfare by the Israelis.' She said it fits a past pattern by Israel of using extensive direct messaging to Lebanese and Palestinians during campaigns in Gaza and against Hezbollah. The messages, she said, appear aimed at 'tormenting' already anxious Iranians abroad. When contacted with requests for comment, the Israeli military declined and the prime minister's office did not respond. Trying new ways to contact relatives Ellie is one of a lucky few who found a way to reach relatives since the blackout. She knows someone who lives on the Iran-Turkiye border and has two phones — one with a Turkish SIM card and one with an Iranian SIM. He calls Ellie's mother with the Iranian phone — since people inside the country are still able to call one another — and presses it to the Turkish phone, where Ellie's on the line. The two are able to speak. 'The last time we spoke to her, we told her about the AI voice that is answering all her calls,' said Ellie. 'She was shocked. She said her phone hasn't rung at all.' Elon Musk said he has activated his satellite Internet provider Starlink in Iran, where a small number of people are believed to have the system, even though it is illegal. Authorities are urging the public to turn in neighbors with the devices as part of an ongoing spy hunt. Others have illegal satellite dishes, granting them access to international news. The messages are making relatives feel helpless M., a woman in the UK, has been trying to reach her mother-in-law, who is immobile and lives in Tehran's northeast, which has been pummeled by Israeli bombardment throughout the week. When she last spoke to her family in Iran, they were mulling whether she should evacuate from the city. Then the blackout was imposed, and they lost contact. Since then she has heard through a relative that the woman was in the ICU with respiratory problems. When she calls, she gets the same bizarre message as the woman in the UK, a lengthy mantra. 'Close your eyes and picture yourself in a place that brings you peace and happiness,' it says. 'Maybe you are walking through a serene forest, listening to the rustle of leaves and birds chirping. Or you're by the seashore, hearing the calming sound of waves crashing on the sand.' The only feeling the message does instill in her, she said, is 'helplessness.'
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
5.1-magnitude quake rattles northern Iran amid Israel war
A 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook northern Iran on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, as Israel pounded the country with repeated waves of airstrikes.
Arab News
5 hours ago
- Arab News
Trump says two weeks is ‘maximum' for Iran decision
MORRISTOWN, United States: President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran had a 'maximum' of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier. Trump added that Iran 'doesn't want to talk to Europe,' dismissing the chance of success in talks between European powers and Iran in Geneva on resolving the conflict between Israel and Iran. Trump also played down the possibility of asking Israel to halt its attacks, after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would not resume talks with the United States until Israel relented. 'I'm giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,' Trump told reporters when asked if he could decide to strike Iran before that. He added that the aim was to 'see whether or not people come to their senses.' Trump had said in a statement on Thursday that he would 'make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks' because there was a 'substantial chance of negotiations' with Iran. Those comments had been widely seen as opening a two-week window for negotiations to end the war between Israel and Iran, with the European powers rushing to talks with Tehran. But his latest remarks indicated that Trump could still make his decision before that if he feels that there has been no progress toward dismantling Iran's nuclear program. Trump dismissed the chances of Europe making a difference, saying the talks between Britain, France, Germany and EU diplomats and Tehran's foreign minister 'didn't help.' 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this,' Trump told reporters as he arrived in Morristown, New Jersey. Asked if he would ask Israel to stop its attacks as Iran had asked, Trump said it was 'very hard to make that request right now.' 'If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do than if somebody's losing, but we're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran, and we'll see what happens.'
