Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global, managed by the central bank Norges Bank, has long been seen as a bastion of socially responsible investment.
Its Ethical Guidelines and the work of its Council on Ethics, which advises on whether to exclude specific companies, have become a guide for hundreds of other investors.
Over the last decade, at the Council's advice it has divested from some fossil fuel companies, particularly those deriving large revenues from coal. Tobacco and recreational cannabis producers are excluded.
With $2tr of assets under management, such a fund can hardly escape controversy.
But it is its exposure to conflict, particularly in Gaza, that have sparked the most virulent arguments.
Earlier this year, it excluded four Israeli banks and Caterpillar, due to an "unacceptable risk that the companies contribute to serious violations of the rights of individuals in situations of war and conflict".
Norges sold $2.4bn of Caterpillar shares due to the alleged use of its bulldozers in “the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property”, said the Ministry of Finance-appointed Council on Ethics.
The US State Department said it was "very troubled" by the decision, "which appears to be based on illegitimate claims against Caterpillar and the Israeli government".
It said it was engaging with the Norwegian government about it, and a Republican senator suggested retaliatory tariffs on the country.
Norway has a long history of supporting the people of Palestine. It was in Oslo 32 years ago that Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation began secret peace negotiations.
As recently as last month’s World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, the Norwegian government made commitments to support the reconstruction of Palestine.
But the Norwegian parliament's decision on Tuesday to suspend the Council on Ethics suggests the country is finding the outer limits of its support.
Parliament acted because it was worried the Council might call for the exclusion of Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft because of their provision of services to the Israeli government.
Seeing the three tech giants as implicated in the Gaza conflict might be a stretch too far for some responsible investors — though left wing Norwegian politicians were angry about the Council's suspension.
But there is a purely financial issue at stake, too. Those three companies made up $103bn of GPF's $1.9tr holdings at the end of June, according to the wealth fund.
Selling that much of just three stocks could cause financial loss — and cut Norway's citizens off from some of the world's most dynamic companies, whose share prices are up 51%, 9% and and 19% this year.
As Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's finance minister, told the Financial Times this week, a divestment like that could threaten the country's welfare state.
Ethics are important in investing, but when a quarter of state revenue and a country's international relations are at stake, it is probably right that politicians should take the big decisions.
“There are no easy answers to these questions," Stoltenberg told the Financial Times. "But we need to handle them better than we have done so far in the ethical guidelines.”
That is something perhaps people on all sides of the debate can agree on.