The National Guidance Committee (also known as the National Steering Committee; Arabic: لجنة التوجيه الوطني[1]) was a Palestinian political organization formed in response to the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s.[2]
The committee was formed by representatives from nationalist groups, municipalities, trade unions, and professional syndicates officially in November 1978.[3] [4] Other members were journalists, students, welfare agencies, and the Supreme Islamic Council.[5] The committee has been described as "the highest authority of the Palestinian people inside Palestine" at that time (as opposed to Palestinians in exile)[6] and as "one of the first major expressions of indigenous Palestinian leadership" during the 1970s following Israeli occupation and the Camp David process. Scholar Salim Tamari described the National Guidance Committee thus:
"The NGC...became the rallying coalition for Palestinians inside the oPt [<nowiki/>[[Palestinian territories|occupied Palestinian territories]]] resisting the occupation....the NGC included prominent mayors and others representing a spectrum of the Palestinian national movement. Despite Israeli repression...one example being the deportation of Palestinian mayors from the oPt in 1980...the guiding framework of civil resistance embodied by the Palestinian National Front and the NGC were critical to the mass mobilization of the first intifada..."Tamari also notes the left-leaning stance of the NGC in contrast to Fatah and "pro-Jordanian figures in the West Bank." The committee's headquarters were in the Federation of Professional Unions in Jerusalem.
Scholar Michael R. Fischbach describes the committee as "a major bridge between local Palestinian activities in the territories and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in exile."[7] Other sources similarly point to the "coordination" between these groups. Fischbach also argues that "the establishment of the committee was an indication of the growing importance of the Occupied Territories in the wider PLO strategic thinking, as well as of its new generation of leaders."
The committee was repressed by Israeli occupying authorities, and they officially outlawed it in 1982.[8]
Ibrahim Dakkak served as secretary-general of the organization. Bassam Shak'a and Haydar Abd Al-Shafi were other founding members.[9] Samiha Khalil was elected to the committee in 1979, the only woman to serve in that capacity. Faisal al-Husseini was another prominent member.[10]