sallam

Sallam (Arabic: سلام) is a Palestinian village situated in the Jericho Governorate of the northern West Bank, approximately 12 kilometres northwest of Jenin city. The village lies on a low plateau at an altitude of about 360 metres above sea level, surrounded by olive and fig trees. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the population was 3,638 in 2017, up from 2,329 in 1997, reflecting a steady growth rate over the past two decades.

The earliest documented mention of Sallam dates to the Ottoman tax registers of the 16th century, where it appears as a small agricultural settlement within the Nablus Sanjak. The residents were largely engaged in subsistence farming, cultivating wheat, barley, and olive groves, with surplus produce sold in nearby markets. A brief field survey conducted in 1882 by the Palestine Exploration Fund noted a stone-built village with a modest water cistern. British Mandate census records from 1922 and 1931 recorded a population of 785 and 1,023 respectively, with the majority identified as Muslim. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the village was temporarily depopulated but repopulated in 1949 by its inhabitants and neighbouring families who had been displaced from surrounding areas.

In the present day, Sallam’s local economy remains predominantly agricultural, although many residents commute to Jenin and other nearby towns for employment in services and construction. The village maintains a primary school and a health clinic, while secondary education is pursued in Jenin. A mosque serves as the central place of worship, and the community observes traditional Islamic customs. Occasionally, small-scale tourism initiatives have highlighted the village’s heritage sites, including stone masons’ workshops and olive oil presses dating back to the Ottoman period. Under Israeli administrative control, Sallam falls under the jurisdiction of the PA’s Jericho Governorate, which administers local infrastructure and public services.