Hebrew Bible In 1883 the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine identified Salbit with
Shaalabbin (
Biblical Hebrew: Šʽlbyn/*Šʽlbyt), which was located northwest of biblical
Aijalon (modern day
Yalo).
Roman and Byzantine periods Jerome (347–420) describes it as part of the territory of the Dan, transcribing its name at that time as
Selebi, a form also used by
Josephus (37-c. 100). Image:PikiWiki Israel 15001 Samaritan synagogue mosaic in Shaalbim.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Samaritan inscription reading "The Lord will reign for ever and ever" (Good Samaritan Museum) In 1949,
archaeologists excavated the remains of a
Samaritan synagogue there that was dated to the late 4th or early 5th century. Measuring 15.4 × 8 metres, its
mosaic floor contains one
Greek inscriptions and two in Samaritan (
language and
script).
Ottoman period Salbit was not mentioned in 16th century records. It was an '
azba of
Biddu and nearby villages (including
Beit Duqqu and
Beit 'Anan). In 1838, it was noted as
Selbit, a
Muslim village in the
Ibn Humar area in the District of
Er-Ramleh. In 1883 the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described
Selbit: "Foundations and caves. The ruins are extensive. A square building stands in the middle. There is a ruined reservoir lined with cement, and walls of rubble." The village is believed to have been resettled in the late 19th century.
British Mandate In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities,
Selbit had a population of 296, all
Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census, when it was counted together with
Bayt Shanna, to 406, still all Muslims, in a total of 71 houses. The houses in Salbit were made of
adobe and stone and were grouped around the village center where the mosque,
suq and elementary school was located. The school, built in 1947, had 47 students. The villagers made their living by agriculture and the raising of livestock. The village's drinking water came from a local well. while 31 dunams were classified as built-up public areas. File:Salbit 1942.jpg|Salbit 1942 1:20,000 File:Kharruba 1942.jpg|Salbit 1945 Scale 1:250,000 File:Lydda and Ramla area - 9 July 1948.PNG|Depopulated villages in the
Ramle Subdistrict 1948 war and aftermath During the
1948 Arab–Israeli War and the
1948 Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle, some of those forcibly expelled were bussed to
Latrun on the front lines and from there ordered to walk northward to Salbit. 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. 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. ==References==