United Nations Security Council Resolution 452

Resolution 452 followed the work of the Security Council commission established under Resolution 446 on 22 March 1979.[1] The commission examined Israeli settlement activity in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and its report, document S/13450, supplied the recommendations considered and accepted in Resolution 452.[4][1]

The Center for Israel Education describes Resolution 452 as the second Security Council resolution within four months supported by the Carter administration that condemned Israeli settlement construction in the territories.[2] Its adoption followed broader international concern about Israeli civilian communities in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and other territories captured during the 1967 war. It followed Security Council Resolution 446 of 1979 and preceded Resolution 465 of 1980, which addressed similar issues.[5]

The preamble of Resolution 452 took note of the report and recommendations of the commission established under Resolution 446 to examine settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem.[6] It strongly deplored what it characterized as Israel's lack of cooperation with that commission and declared that Israel's settlement policy had no legal validity, asserting that it constituted a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949.[4][1]

The preamble also expressed deep concern about Israeli practices in implementing its settlement policy and about the consequences for the local Arab and Palestinian population, emphasizing the need to address existing settlements and consider measures to safeguard the impartial protection of seized property.[6][1] On Jerusalem, the resolution bore in mind the city's specific status and reconfirmed relevant earlier Security Council resolutions, particularly the need to protect and preserve the unique spiritual and religious dimension of its Holy Places.[4][1] The preamble concluded with a warning that Israel's settlement policy could have grave consequences for attempts to achieve a peaceful solution in the Middle East.[4]

In its operative clauses, the resolution commended the commission's work, accepted the recommendations contained in its report, and called upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction, and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.[4][1] It further requested that the commission keep implementation of the resolution under close survey and report back to the Security Council before 1 November 1979.[6][1]

The resolution was adopted at the Security Council's 2159th meeting in New York on 20 July 1979 and recorded as document S/RES/452(1979).[7][1] Its draft was identified as S/13461, and the associated meeting record was S/PV.2159.[7] The final vote was 14 in favor, none opposed, and one abstention by the United States.[1]

Rather than vetoing the resolution — as the United States had done on other occasions to shield Israel from Council condemnations — the Carter administration abstained, thereby permitting it to pass.[5] This made Resolution 452 a notable instance in which the United States declined to block a Security Council measure deploring Israeli settlement expansion.[3] The resolution was subsequently published in the 1979 Security Council resolutions and decisions volume on pages 8–9.[1]

The resolution's passage generated significant diplomatic friction. The Israeli government was greatly angered by its adoption, as were American supporters of Israel.[2] The episode further strained relations between the Carter administration and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, a relationship already under pressure from disagreements over settlement policy and the broader peace process.[3]

The Center for Israel Education interprets the resolution as partly intended to encourage the Palestine Liberation Organization to accept Israel and to placate Saudi Arabia over Israel's control of Jerusalem.[3] This is an interpretation of its diplomatic purpose rather than language contained in the resolution itself.

Resolution 452 was later cited as part of a broader pattern of Security Council action on settlements, together with Resolutions 446 of 1979 and 465 of 1980.[5] Resolution 452 was also explicitly reaffirmed in the preamble of Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on 23 December 2016, which again treated Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories as contrary to international law.[8]

The resolution's central legal claim — that Israeli settlements have no legal validity and violate the Fourth Geneva Convention — remains contested. An analysis by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs argues that Article 49(6) was drafted to prevent coerced population transfers rather than voluntary Jewish settlement, that Israeli-Palestinian agreements reserved settlements for permanent-status negotiations, and that those agreements did not prohibit continued planning or construction.[9]

The analysis also points to Jewish property ownership and settlement in parts of Judea and Samaria during the Ottoman and British Mandate periods, including cases in which Israelis returned to properties after displacement under Jordanian rule.[9] It characterizes the use of Article 49 to deem Israeli settlements illegal as a distortion of the provision's historical purpose. By contrast, Resolution 452 declared the settlement policy legally invalid and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, while Resolution 2334 reaffirmed Resolution 452 in 2016 and described Israeli settlements as a flagrant violation under international law.[8][1]