The patriarchate's ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes roughly 200,000 to 500,000 Orthodox Christians across the Holy Land in Palestine, Jordan and Israel.

[2][3] The church traces its foundation in Jerusalem to the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit, according to Christian beliefs, descended on the disciples of Jesus Christ and ushered the spread of the Gospel.

[note 2] The majority of Orthodox Christians under the patriarchate are Palestinians and Jordanians, with minorities of Russians, Romanians, and Georgians.

Semi-Autonomous: In the Apostolic Age, the early centers of Christianity consisted of an indefinite number of local churches that initially looked to Jerusalem as its main centre and point of reference.

[6]Before the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War (66-73 AD) and the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70 by Titus, Christians led by Simeon fled to Pella in Decapolis (Jordan),[7] where they remained until 135.

However, to punish the Jews for their revolt and to prevent further unrest, Jerusalem was made a Roman colony and renamed Aelia Capitolina by Hadrian.

Jerusalem was established as a patriarchate because of the holiness of the place; the special significance acquired between the first and fourth ecumenical councils; the erection of magnificent churches; the conversion of a large proportion of the population of Roman and Byzantine Syria-Palestina to Christianity; the coming together of pilgrims from around the world; the importance of outstanding bishops, monks, and teachers of the Church of Jerusalem; the struggles of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre on behalf of Orthodoxy; and the support of various emperors of Byzantium.

The Persians occupied Jerusalem in 614 and took Patriarch Zachariah prisoner, along with the palladium of Christianity, the Precious Cross.

[citation needed] The most deadly persecution occurred during the time of the Fatamid Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (1007–1009), named the "Nero of Egypt" for his merciless acts.

In the Great Schism of 1054, the patriarch of Jerusalem joined those of Antioch, Constantinople and Alexandria as the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Catholic Church continued to appoint Latin patriarchs, though the office holder resided in Rome until 1847, when they were permitted to return to the Middle East by the Ottoman authorities.

This position has been criticised as defying the unanimous decision by representatives of all Eastern Orthodox churches meeting at the Phanar at the call of the ecumenical patriarch withdrawing communion from Irineos and recognizing Theophilos's canonical election.

It has been alleged that the origins of the dispute are part of a forty-year attempt by Israeli settler organizations and politicians to open up the patriarchate's extensive land holdings worth estimated hundreds of millions of dollars.

The dominance of ethnic Greeks in the Church's hierarchy excludes the Arab majority from its upper ranks.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the second biggest owner of land in Israel, after only the Israeli government.

[18] The movement began within the context of rising Arab nationalism, inspired by 19th-century nationalist movements in the Balkans, which merged demands for religious reforms and national emancipation under the Ottoman Empire, and the successful Arabization of Syria and Lebanon's Antioch Patriarchate in 1899.

[19] Opposition to the Greek clergy started violent in the 19th century, when they came under physical attack by the Arab laity in the streets.

There were historically also several interventions to solve the conflict by the Ottoman, British (1921-1948), and Jordanian (1948-1967) authorities, owing to the patriarchate's headquarters being located in East Jerusalem.

List centered on the Holy Sepulchre and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, with the sites grouped together geographically.