The March 1982 Palestinian general strike was a general strike and wave of protests in Palestine and Israel in March 1982, in opposition to the forced dismissals of Palestinian city councils and mayors.

On 11 March 1982, the Israeli government banned the National Guidance Committee, a Palestinian leadership body in the occupied territories led by mayors elected in 1976. On 18 March, the Israeli government ordered the city council of Al-Bireh, a city in the West Bank, forcibly disbanded and its mayor dismissed, claiming that the council supported the Palestine Liberation Organization and had refused to cooperate with the Israeli Civil Administration. Two more Palestinian mayors, Bassam Shakaa of Nablus and Karim Khalaf of Ramallah were forcibly dismissed a week later. In response, a general strike and widespread protests broke out across the Palestinian Territories, with some protests being held in Israel in solidarity, and additional protest being held to mark Land Day. The Israeli government attempted to forcibly suppress the general strike, including through use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, as well as increased censorship of the press, imposition of curfews, and forcing shopkeepers to open their shops. The strike was also marked by an increase in Israeli settler violence. At least five Palestinians were killed over the course of the general strike, as well as one Israeli soldier.

The strike was a key moment in a wave of Palestinian unrest between late 1981 and mid 1982, at that point the largest outbreak of Palestinian unrest since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, with some Palestinians referring to it as a "Spring Uprising" or as the "Intifada of 1982." Palestinian nationalists in the occupied territories, who supported the PLO but largely acted independently of the PLO's central leadership (then based in Lebanon), contended that the Israeli government aimed to suppress Palestinian nationalism and undermine local democracy as part of a move towards annexation of the Palestinian Territories. The Israeli government, led by Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Minister of Defence Ariel Sharon, argued that the Palestinian mayors were political extremists who played key organising roles within the PLO, including terrorism, and that peace between Palestine and Israel would not be possible as long as the PLO continued to dominate Palestinian politics. The Israeli disbandments and response to the strike were widely condemned internationally, and resulted in the Israeli government nearly losing a vote of no-confidence in the Knesset.

By the end of 1982, following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, almost all of the elected Palestinian city councils had been disbanded, the National Guidance Committee had been definitively dismantled, and the PLO had been expelled out of Lebanon. In the longer term, however, the Israeli government's actions failed to effectively suppess the Palestinian nationalist movement, leading to continued tensions throughout the 1980s that culminated in the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987.

After Israel's victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank. The occupation has been controversial, with Israel accused of violating international law, as well as committing human rights abuses and apartheid against Palestinians. The Israeli government has also actively promoted the creation and growth of Israeli settlements in Palestine. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella group representing the most prominent armed Palestinian nationalist paramilitaries in the second half of the 20th century, has also been accused of a number of human rights violations and of waging a terrorist campaign against Israelis. By 1982, the PLO was based in Lebanon, and had become a major participant in the Lebanese Civil War.

In 1976, the Israeli government, then led by the Israeli Labor Party, allowed local elections to be held throughout the West Bank, under the assumption that conservative, pro-Jordanian candidates would win. Instead, the 1976 West Bank local elections saw major victories by candidates linked to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), bringing a cohort of younger, more nationalist, and more outspoken figures to the forefront of Palestinian politics. These mayors and councillors would subsequently become the leading figures in the National Guidance Committee, formed in 1978 as a coalition of nationalist leadership figures (including labour unionists, student council leaders, and other local groups) to coordinate their activities in the occupied territories. The election results shocked the Israeli government, who subsequently expelled the mayors of Hebron and Halhul, and tried to expel the Mayor of Nablus, in 1979 and announced that it would indefinitely block further local elections from being held in Palestine, claiming that further elections would "cause damage to the peace process." Tensions surrounding Palestinian mayors were amplified when Israeli settlers attempted to murder several of the mayors in June 1980.

Also adding to the tensions were suspicions among Palestinians that the Israeli government wished to undermine the independence of Palestinian city councils and local Palestinian institutions, and extend its control over the Palestinian population and land. One key factor in these suspicions was Israeli support for the creation and arming of the Palestinian Village Leagues, associations based on primarily rural traditional societal structures that Israel saw as more amenable to Israeli interests. Most Palestinians, however, considered the Village Leagues to be inauthentic and collaborators. In November 1981, the head of the Village League in Ramallah, Yusuf Khatib, and his son, were assassinated by Palestinian militants in an attack claimed by the PLO. On 12 March 1982, shots were fired by Palestinian militants at the home of a Village League leader in Beitunia.

Also contributing to tensions was the significant increase in Israeli settlers in Palestine following the election of the Menachem Begin-led government in the late 1970s, who took a more active role in encouraging settlement. As well, following the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in the late-1970s, Israel gradually withdrew its occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, including dismantling its settlements in the Sinai, a withdrawal that was due to be complete by late April 1982 under the Camp David Accords and that was opposed by many settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. In early March 1982, some settlers blockaded roads in the West Bank in protest over the withdrawal. Israeli Minister of Defence Ariel Sharon, however, pledged that West Bank settlements would not be dismantled, saying that "we would never agree to their removal. Half a million Israelis would stream into the region to stop it."