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Palestine Atlas

Salfit

Basic Information

Type
City
Governorate
Salfit
Region
West Bank - Northern

Overview

Salfit (Arabic: سلفيت) is a Palestinian city in the central northern West Bank, located northwest of Nablus in the heart of Palestine's olive country. Salfit is the administrative capital of Salfit Governorate and holds the distinction of being the largest olive oil-producing city in Palestine — its groves produce over 15% of the West Bank's total olive oil output. Since 1967, Salfit has been subjected to one of the most aggressive settlement expansion campaigns in the West Bank. The city of Ariel (established 1978) — one of the largest Israeli settlements, with a population exceeding 20,000 — sits directly on Salfit's northern lands, confiscating thousands of dunams and cutting the city off from its northern expansion. The settlements of Barkan (1981), Revava (1991), and Kfar Tapuach (1978) further encroach from the west, east, and south respectively. Ariel's industrial zone (Barkan Industrial Park) exploits cheap Palestinian labor while operating on confiscated Salfit land. The settlements have also dumped untreated industrial and sewage waste onto Palestinian agricultural lands below, contaminating soil and water sources. Salfit's experience exemplifies how Israeli settlement policy simultaneously confiscates Palestinian land, exploits Palestinian labor, and destroys Palestinian agriculture and environment.

Historical Significance

Largest olive oil-producing city in Palestine; the starkest example of settlement encroachment and environmental destruction caused by Israeli colonies, particularly the massive Ariel settlement and its industrial zone.

Sources and record limitations

Source detail varies by record. Some entries include document and page references; others supply source names only. Check the cited material and the record's limitations before relying on a specific claim.

  • PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics)
  • ARIJ (Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem)
  • UN OCHA
  • PASSIA
  • B'Tselem
  • Palestinian municipal records
  • Canaan Fair Trade

Premier olive oil producer in Palestine. 26,123 dunums total area.