Danish pension fund Pædagogernes Pension (PBU) announced today it has sold off its investments in Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Expedia, in line with its responsible investment guidelines, because the firms all have business activities in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
PBU, the DKK100bn (€13.4bn) Danish pension fund for early childhood teachers, said the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, which was occupied by Israel, was becoming increasingly unsustainable.
“The recent escalation of the war in Gaza and a desperate emergency aid situation that is causing widespread hunger, malnutrition and increased child mortality mean that responsible investors such as the Pædagogernes Pension have to take further steps to avoid the risk of contributing to human rights violations,” it said in a statement.
Rasmus Juhl Pedersen, the pension fund’s head of ESG, told IPE that in all, the pension fund divested roughly DKK642m in shares of the three major US travel technology companies, with those sales having been made over the last two days.
This included nearly DKK498m of Booking Holdings shares, DKK80m of Airbnb stock and DKK64m in Expedia, he said.
Explaining the reasoning behind its divestment of the three companies, PBU said the UN had drawn attention back in June 2023 to the potential violations of human rights by companies in connection with a list of firms with business activities it believed contributed to and supported illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“In line with this, a broad majority in the Danish Parliament decided in April 2025 to discourage activities and engagements that provide the illegal settlements with improved economic opportunities,” it said, adding that a guideline from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ embassy in Israel stated that this also included service industries such as tourism.
PBU said it was therefore selling the three remaining companies in its portfolio that had business activities in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank – with all of them having room and apartment rentals in the settlements.
Sune Schackenfeldt, PBU’s chief executive officer, said: ”We see it as an obligation as a responsible investor and as a member of the UN Global Compact, which establishes a framework for responsible corporate behaviour.”
“We cannot silently watch as innocent children are subjected to malnutrition and hunger,” he said.
IPE has contacted Booking Holdings, Expedia and Airbnb for comment.
Norway’s government has been reacting swiftly this week after it became public that the sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), had recently increased its investment in an Israeli engineering company, which maintained and supplied parts for fighter jets being used to bomb Gaza.
Norway had already been under pressure from the United Nations over its investments in Israeli companies.
On Tuesday, the Finance Ministry requested a new review of the fund’s investments in Israeli companies, stating that the GPFG should not be invested in companies that contributed to states’ violations of international law.
Today, finance minister Jens Stoltenberg met staff at Norges Bank, asking for an update on the work to review the pension fund’s investments in Israeli companies and new measures.
“It became clear that the first measures will come early next week,” the ministry reported in today’s statement.
In an invitation yesterday to journalists to its interim results press conference on 12 August, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which runs the GPFG, said that alongside the financial results announcement, NBIM would also provide an update about the fund’s investments in Israel.
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