Salbit
Encyclopedia
Salbit was a Palestinian
Arab
village located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of al-Ramla
. It has been identified with the biblical town of Shaalabbin (also, Shaalbim) which was located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northwest of biblical Aijalon (modern day Yalo
). Salbit was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
after a military assault by Israel
i forces. The Israel
i locality of Shaalvim was established on the former village's lands in 1951.
whereas in the Septuagint (LXX) it is mentioned as one of the cities in which the Amorites continued to dwell after the conquest of Canaan
by the Israelites. The name has no obvious Hebrew
derivation and may be a survival of a form of pre-Canaan
ite speech. Shaalbim is also mentioned in as an area under the administration of Ben-Deker, one of twelve officers who is said to have paid tribute
to King Solomon, and in .
also describes it as part of the territory of the Dan, transcribing its name at that time as Selebi, a form also used by Josephus
.
, suq and elementary school was located. The school, built in 1947, had 47 students. All the villagers were of the Muslim
faith, and they made their living by agriculture and the raising of livestock. In 1944-45 a total of 4,066 dunums
was allocated to the cultivation of cereals, while 16 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The village's drinking water came from a local well. The population numbered 406 in 1931, living in 71 houses. Salbit was listed as one of the villages in the Jerusalem District of British Mandate Palestine and the population figure included the inhabitants of Bayt Shanna. In 1944-45 the population was estimated at 510.
on the front lines and from there ordered to walk northward to Salbit. The Lydda Death March, as it came to be known, brought hundreds of refugee families to Salbit where they took shelter in a fig
grove and were given water and rest for the night before trucks from the Arab Legion
began moving some of the families to a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah
.
Salbit itself was depopulated after a military assault by Israeli forces
on 15–16 July 1948. After its depopulation, Israeli forces headed by Yigal Allon
used it as a base from which to launch an attack on the strategic hill of Latrun
on 18 July, which was spurned by the forces of the Arab Legion who managed to hold onto the site without inflicting any casualties on the Israeli forces. The village structures of Salbit were subsequently completely destroyed, and according to Walid Khalidi
, all that remains of the village today are "some cactus
plants and shrubs." The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Salbit as of 1998 was 3,633.
The kibbutz
of Shaalvim, named per the site's biblical place name
, was established on the former village lands on 13 August 1951 by a Nahal
group from the ESRA movement.
excavated the remains of a Samaritan
synagogue
there that was dated to the late 4th or early 5th century. Measuring 15.4 x 8 metres, its mosaic
floor contains one Greek
inscriptions and two in Samaritan. In the centre of the mosaic is a mountain which is thought to be a depiction of Mount Gerizim
, a place holy to Samaritans. Rectangular in shape, the synagogue was longitudinally aligned more or less with Mount Gerizim.
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
village located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of al-Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
. It has been identified with the biblical town of Shaalabbin (also, Shaalbim) which was located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northwest of biblical Aijalon (modern day Yalo
Yalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
). Salbit was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
after a military assault by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i forces. The Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i locality of Shaalvim was established on the former village's lands in 1951.
Biblical references
Shaalabbin is mentioned in as a city of the southern DanTribe of Dan
The Tribe of Dan, also sometimes spelled as "Dann", was one of the Tribes of Israel. Though known mostly from biblical sources, they were possibly descendants of the Denyen Sea Peoples who joined with Hebrews...
whereas in the Septuagint (LXX) it is mentioned as one of the cities in which the Amorites continued to dwell after the conquest of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
by the Israelites. The name has no obvious Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
derivation and may be a survival of a form of pre-Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite speech. Shaalbim is also mentioned in as an area under the administration of Ben-Deker, one of twelve officers who is said to have paid tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
to King Solomon, and in .
Extrabiblical references
JeromeJerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
also describes it as part of the territory of the Dan, transcribing its name at that time as Selebi, a form also used by Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
.
History
The houses in Salbit were made of mud and stone and were grouped around the village center where the mosqueMosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
, suq and elementary school was located. The school, built in 1947, had 47 students. All the villagers were of the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
faith, and they made their living by agriculture and the raising of livestock. In 1944-45 a total of 4,066 dunums
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
was allocated to the cultivation of cereals, while 16 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The village's drinking water came from a local well. The population numbered 406 in 1931, living in 71 houses. Salbit was listed as one of the villages in the Jerusalem District of British Mandate Palestine and the population figure included the inhabitants of Bayt Shanna. In 1944-45 the population was estimated at 510.
1948 war and aftermath
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the exodus from Lydda and Ramla, some of those forcibly expelled were bussed to LatrunLatrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
on the front lines and from there ordered to walk northward to Salbit. The Lydda Death March, as it came to be known, brought hundreds of refugee families to Salbit where they took shelter in a fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
grove and were given water and rest for the night before trucks from the Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
began moving some of the families to a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
.
Salbit itself was depopulated after a military assault by Israeli forces
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
on 15–16 July 1948. After its depopulation, Israeli forces headed by Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon
Yigal Allon was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party, and acting Prime Minister of Israel, and was a member of the Knesset and government minister from the 10th through the...
used it as a base from which to launch an attack on the strategic hill of Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
on 18 July, which was spurned by the forces of the Arab Legion who managed to hold onto the site without inflicting any casualties on the Israeli forces. The village structures of Salbit were subsequently completely destroyed, and according to Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
, all that remains of the village today are "some cactus
Cactus
A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...
plants and shrubs." The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Salbit as of 1998 was 3,633.
The kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
of Shaalvim, named per the site's biblical place name
Place names in Palestine
Place names in Palestine have been the subject of much scholarship and contention, particularly in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The significance of place names in Palestine lies in their potential to legitimize the historical claims asserted by the involved parties, all of whom claim...
, was established on the former village lands on 13 August 1951 by a Nahal
Nahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
group from the ESRA movement.
Archaeological excavations
In 1949, archaeologistsSyro-Palestinian archaeology
Syro-Palestinian archaeology is a term used to refer to archaeological research conducted in the southern Levant. Palestinian archaeology is also commonly used in its stead, particularly when the area of inquiry centers on ancient Palestine...
excavated the remains of a Samaritan
Samaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
there that was dated to the late 4th or early 5th century. Measuring 15.4 x 8 metres, its mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
floor contains one Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
inscriptions and two in Samaritan. In the centre of the mosaic is a mountain which is thought to be a depiction of Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus , and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated,...
, a place holy to Samaritans. Rectangular in shape, the synagogue was longitudinally aligned more or less with Mount Gerizim.