Norway

Norway's KLP Pension Fund Divests from Oshkosh and ThyssenKrupp

Published JUN 30 2025

Story

Above: A press conference for Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) on June 4, 2025 in Kiel, Germany. Image credit: Frank Molter/picture alliance/Getty Images

The Facts

Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, announced Monday it will divest from U.S.-based Oshkosh Corporation and German company ThyssenKrupp, citing their weapons sales to Israeli military forces involved in operations in Gaza.
Timesofisrael
Al Jazeera
The decision follows a UN report in June 2024 identifying companies supplying equipment to the Israeli Defense Forces deployed in Gaza, with KLP having held approximately 19 million kroner ($1.8 million) in Oshkosh and 10 million kroner ($1 million) in ThyssenKrupp up until June 16, 2025.
KLP
PressTV
Bloomberg.com
KLP’s head of responsible investment, Kiran Aziz, said the companies contravened the pension fund’s guidelines, adding that corporations have an "independent duty to exercise due diligence in order to avoid complicity in violations of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law."
KLP
The guidelines themselves list the "sale of weapons to states in armed conflicts that use the weapons in ways that constitute severe and systematic violations of international humanitarian law" as criteria for exclusion.
KLP
As part of KLP's inquiries, Oshkosh Corporation confirmed that it continues to sell military vehicles to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), while ThyssenKrupp disclosed its contracts to deliver four submarines to the Israeli Navy.
KLP
The divestment follows KLP's previous exclusion of Caterpillar Inc. last year for the use of its bulldozers by Israeli forces in Palestinian territory and 16 companies in 2021, including Motorola, over alleged connections to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Madhyamamonline
Al Jazeera
Bloomberg.com

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

These companies are profiting from weapons that fuel serious violations of international law in Gaza. The UN has clearly warned that arms transfers to Israel risk complicity in potential genocide and war crimes. KLP made the right call excluding firms that cannot prove they are preventing their equipment from being used in systematic breaches of humanitarian law.

KLP

Narrative B

Private investment in defense, if managed responsibly, is a moral imperative that equips nation-states with the means to defend their interests and sovereignty, as seen in the example of Ukraine. Disinvesting from the industry only weakens the defensive capabilities that protect democracies, as well as human rights and freedoms, from external threats.