The village stood on flat terrain on the coastal plain, linked by a spur (which was also the village's main street) to the highway between Ramla and Jaffa. Bir Salim, classified in the Palestine Index Gazetteer as a hamlet, was built along a northeast-southwest axis. Its houses, made of either adobe or cement, were separated by narrow alleys that branched off from the main street. After World War I the British built a military headquarters in the village for General Allenby, who had led the Allied fight against the Ottomans in Palestine and Syria. All of the people of Bir Salim were Muslims. Agriculture, especially citrus cultivation, was their main economic activity. In 1944/45 they used 742 dunums of village land to grow citrus, and 1,468 dunums for cereals. In addition to cultivating crops, the villagers engaged in animal husbandry.
