Swedish pension fund delists Elbit for ethical reasons

Helsinki - Första AP-Fonden, the largest of Sweden's pension funds, has delisted the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems from its global investments portfolio, citing ethical reasons centered on Elbit's involvement in the design, installation and operation of a surveillance system for the controversial barrier running between Israel and the West Bank, according to the defensenews.com. The Swedish fund becomes the latest Nordic financial institution to drop Elbit from its investment portfolio. The Norwegian State Pension Fund delisted Elbit last September, and Danske Bank Pension Funds in Denmark followed suit in February. "The Ethical Council recommended that Elbit Systems should be excluded from each portfolio because it deems that the company can be linked to violations of fundamental conventions and norms through its active development, delivery and maintenance of the custom-made monitoring system for certain parts of the separation barrier being built on the West Bank," Första AP-Fonden's Ethical Council said in a statement. The council said it took its action after entering a dialogue with Elbit that failed to produce "the intended results." The barrier, which comprises a network of walls, fences and closed military roads, was built by Israel as a line of defense to prevent terrorist attacks. However, Palestinians have described it as an "apartheid wall" that blocks off important areas of their "future state."