Salbit

Salbit (Arabic: سلبيت‎) was a Palestinian Arab village located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) southeast of al-Ramla. It has been identified with the biblical town of Shaalabbin (also, Shaalbim) which was located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northwest of biblical Aijalon (modern day Yalo). Salbit was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War after a military assault by Israeli forces. The Israeli locality of Shaalvim was established on the former village's lands in 1951.

History

Biblical references

Shaalabbin is mentioned in Joshua 19:42 as a city of the southern Dan 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-Canaanite speech. Shaalbim is also mentioned in 1 Kings 4:9 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 Judges 1:35. In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine tentatively identified Shaalabbin with Salbit