Sursock

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Sursock is a Greek Orthodox , Lebanese family and one of Beirut's aristocratic families. The Sursock family made their money as traders.^[1] The Sursocks were also landowners and for many decades Lebanon's leading business family, joining forces with the Otis Elevator Company to manufacture elevators.^[2] Rue Sursock in the Achrafieh district in Beirut is named after the family, which owned many palatial homes on the street, such as the Sursock House.

[edit] 20th Century Land Controversy

In addition to owning land in Lebanon, the Sursock family owned more than 60,000 acres the in the Vale of Esdraelon, the Jezreel Valley, in Palestine. The land incompassed 13 villages in the Emek.^[3] It is believed that the Sursock family sold the land in Palestine for nearly three quarters of a million pound to the Jewish National Fund in 1906.^[4] Jewish settlers would displace the Arab tenants of the villages. Arabs have always regarded the Jezreel Valley as the most fertile region in Palestine.^[5] Palestinians today still resent the sale by the absentee Sursock family which caused several thousand farmers to be evicted from the lands they occupied for generations.^[6]