Salfit () is a city in the central

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, and the capital of the

Salfit Governorate Salfit Governorate () is one of the 16 Governorates of the Palestinian National Authority, Governorates of the State of Palestine. It is located in the northwestern West Bank, held under Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Israeli occupation ...

. It is located adjacent to the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

of Ariel. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

(PCBS), Salfit had a population of 10,911 in 2017. Since the 1995

Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, commonly known as Oslo II or Oslo 2, was a key and complex agreement in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Because it was signed in Taba, Egypt, it is sometimes called the Taba Agr ...

, Salfit, located in Area A, has been administered by the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

, while continuing under Israeli military occupation.

Etymology

According to

Edward Henry Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge, the son of a private scho ...

, the name was possibly from "levelled sown field".

History

Pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s from the Iron Age I, Iron Age II,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, and the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

eras have been found, while no sherds from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era have been found.Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, p. 473. According to

Ronnie Ellenblum Ronnie Ellenblum (; born June 21, 1952, Haifa, Israel; died January 7, 2021, Jerusalem, Israel) was an Israeli professor at the department of geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Human ...

, Salfit was re-established during early Muslim rule (7th–11th centuries) and continued to exist through the Crusader period. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Salfit was inhabited by

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s. Pottery sherds from the Crusader,

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

and

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

eras have also been found here.

Ottoman era

Salfit was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517 with all of

, and sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found. The village appeared in Ottoman tax registers under the name of ''Salfit al-Basal'' as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' ("Subdistrict") of Jabal Qubal, part of the

Sanjak of Nablus The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet and then the Beirut Vilaye ...

in 1596. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 7,618

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 132 The city formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and the

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities." It served as a hub for the local villages,Lockman and Beinin, 1989, p
143
/ref> and was one of many large commercial villages in the area that served a mediating role between the administrative center of Nablus and the smaller villages. It was noted as a Muslim village, ''Selfit'', in ''Jurat Merda'', south of

in 1838.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
127
/ref> An Ottoman census conducted in 1870/1871 (1288 AH) listed the village in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus. The city was described as "a large village, on high ground, with olive groves round it, and a pool to the east. It is apparently an ancient site with rock-cut tombs." by the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' in 1882. It further noted that there were two springs to the west of the village. Towards the end of Ottoman rule, Salfit was one of the two largest villages in the District of Nablus that produced

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

. At the time there were tensions between the residents of the village and the merchants of the administrative center of

. The boys' school had about 100 pupils while the girls' school had 10 pupils. One of the reasons for the disparity was the locust attack on Salfit's crop earlier the previous year which had destroyed the village's harvest. Because of the consequent poverty and state of demise, parents kept their daughters at home to care for the family.

Modern era

British mandate

The total land area was found to be 23,117

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 10,853 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,545 for cereals, while 100 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian occupation

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian occupation. Salfit was the center of the

Palestine Communist Party The Palestine Communist Party (, ''Palestinische Komunistische Partei'', abbreviated PKP; ) was a political party in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine formed in 1923 through the merger of the Palestinian Communist Party (192 ...

in 1948. Throughout the 1950s it became a major stronghold for

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and anti-Jordanian activity. Salfit was given

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

status in 1955.History and Development
Salfit Chamber of Commerce.

Israeli rule

Salfit came under Israeli control after the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. Between the 1960s and the late 1980s, Salfit's urban growth had mostly occurred eastward from the old town, which still served as a nucleus of activity in the city and the stone villas of the Zir and 'Afana clans still remain. A relatively large number of the town's residents, about 600 out of a population of 4500, worked labor jobs in Israel, and in the adjacent

of Ariel. The proximity to nearby settlements and the Israeli border, as well as the significantly higher wages, contributed to this greater proportion than other towns.Robinson, 1997, pp
58
60.Salfit remained a communist stronghold in 1989. At the beginning of the

first Intifada The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

, nearly all workers boycotted their jobs in Israel and the following year, when many Palestinians ended their boycott, around half of the workers of Salfit refused to return to their jobs. Consequently, according to historian Glenn E. Robinson, between 1987 and 1989, a "virtual

green revolution The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in Developed country , devel ...

" took hold in the town as a result of the enthusiasm generated by the "

back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarianism, agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree o ...

," agricultural expertise and the increase in additional workers. While prior to the uprising Salfit's residents acquired the bulk of their produce from the Nablus region and Israel, during the revolt the town became self-sufficient in both tomatoes, which were not grown at all previously, and cucumbers. Other agricultural products such as potatoes, eggplants, peppers, cauliflower and beans were grown in greenhouses while those that were not grown were supplied by other Palestinian farmers. Unlike in previous years, Salfit had supplied Nablus with vegetables while that city was under Israeli

curfew A curfew is an order that imposes certain regulations during specified hours. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to remain indoors during the evening and nighttime hours. Such an order is most often issued by public authorit ...

. Part of this upsurge in agricultural activity was the cultivation of about 100

s of relatively isolated lands. An Israeli military measure closed all schools in the West Bank on 3 February 1988, stating that they served to organize violence. This led to a number of "popular education committees" being established. These committees held classes in lieu of the closed-down schools. Families affiliated with the conservative

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

movement sent their children to the mosque-based class while those leaned towards communism and secularism sent their children to a local union building. Classes held in the mosque were considered to particularly progressive because of gender integration. The military wing of Hamas claimed it launched its first

suicide attack A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

from Salfit in 1993. The

(PNA), which began to administer the town, created the

governorate A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions ...

of Salfit with the city as its capital in 1995. Under the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

, the city has been placed under Palestinian civil control, what is known as Area A. Israeli authorities published plans in 2021 to construct 730 residential units around the illegal Israeli outpost of Nof Avi, which was established in 2020 by an Israeli couple as a farm, on what Israel declares is 'state land'. The new settlement was to be called 'West Ariel'. The establishment of such a large settlement, according to Salfit residents, would effectively block their own planned urban expansion.

Demographics

During Ottoman rule, there were 118 households and two bachelors, all

counted in the 1596 census. The British Mandate authorities conducted a census in 1922, which showed a population of 901 (899 Muslims and 2 Orthodox Christians).Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
25
/ref>Barron, 1923, Table XV, p
47
/ref> The 1931 census counted 1415 (1412 Muslims and 3 Christians), occupying 331 homes.Mills, 1932, p
64
/ref> In the 1945 village statistics, the population was 1830, all Muslims.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> Jordan conducted a census in 196, which counted the population at 3393. According to the 1997 census by the

(PCBS) the population of Salfit was 7101. Nearly 13% of the population were recorded as

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s. The gender distribution was 50.6% male and 49.4% female. Over 50% of the residents were below the age of 24, while 45% were between the ages of 25–65 and the remaining 5% were over 65. The population reached 8796 and the number of households was 1840 in the 2007 census.2017 PCBS Census

. p. 72. Males and females each constituted half of the population. The age distribution was 48.9% below the age of 20, 46.6% between ages 20–65 and 4.1% over the age of 65. Over 48% of residents over the age of 12 were married, 3.6% were widowed and less than 1% were divorced. According to the 2017 census, the population grew to 10,911.

Economy

Salfit is a major administrative and commercial center for the dozens of villages surrounding it. However, the route for Palestinians from Salfit's northern dependencies has been sealed off by the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

because of a bypass road for the settlement of Ariel crossing the main road. There are several governmental offices and institutions in the city. Education services in Salfit are provided by four modern schools in addition to the Al-Quds Open University campus. The Salfit Governorate is also an area that is well known in the field of stone cutting and marble. An industrial zone was established on 200 dunams of land at the east end of Salfit. The Salfit Governorate is the largest

producer in the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

, producing 1,500 tons annually. Zaytoun, the Palestinian Olive Tree Association, is active with Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) in Salfit to improve the quality and sales of Palestinian Olive oil. Salfit is located just across a valley to the south of the

of Ariel and around 1/3 the population of Ariel, about midway between

and

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. The US Consulate General in Jerusalem presented 700 books and 100 magazines for a new library at the Community-Based Learning Center in Salfit in May 2008. The ceremony was attended by the Ministry of Youth and Sports official, Hussein Azzam, and Deputy Governor of Salfit, Nawaf Souf. The Community Center is located on al-Madares Street in Salfit and was established by the Relief International Schools Online (RISOL) in 2007. 2010-08 Salfeet 03

The Salfit Hospital was completed in 2006. Until then, the nearest hospitals were in

Tulkarm Tulkarm or Tulkarem (, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the West Bank, the capital of the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian territories, Palestinia ...

and

, all over an hour drive away.

Water treatment plant

There are a large number of water springs in and around the city, but they are unable to cope with the growing demand of the city. For the past nine years, the municipality has been trying to build a

wastewater treatment plant Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on ...

. The House of Water and Environment (HWE) of

produced a report in July 2007, the "Assessment of the Impact of Pollution Sources on the Water Environment and the Lives of the Residents in the Northern West Bank, Palestine". The plant was supposed to be built on

land from the town of Salfit. The municipality received a grant of 22 million

euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

from the German government to build the plant and a mainline pipe to the town, but the

Israeli Defense Forces Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...

(IDF) stopped the construction of the building and seized all the equipment, stating it would interfere with nearby

s.HWE p. 8
/ref> The equipment was returned only 18 months later. As a result, the town had to take out a loan to buy a new piece of land eight kilometers closer to its outskirts and another loan of 2 million euros to move the pipes and the electricity cables. Although Israel approved the new site of the plant, the West Bank Barrier would separate Salfit from the sewage plant. Salfit and other towns in the area were without running water for weeks in June 2016, as the Israeli water supply company, Mekorot reduced the amount of water it sold to the Palestinians.

Notable people

* Zaher Jabarin, head of Hamas for the West Bank (2024-), born in Salfit in 1969Little-known Hamas leader seen behind resurgence of West Bank suicide bombings
Gianluca Pacchiani for

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

, posted & accessed 19 Sep 2024 * Arabi Awwad, Founder of the Revolutionary Palestinian Communist Party, born in Salfit in 1928

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Official Municipality Website

Salfit Chambers Of Commerce

Salfit City WebsiteSalfit City
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14:
IAAWikimedia commons

Salfit Municipality (including Khirbet Qeis Locality) (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Salfit City Profile (including Khirbet Qeis Locality)
ARIJ
Salfit, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Salfit
ARIJ {{Authority control Cities in the West Bank Municipalities of West Bank