Thirteen Greek Orthodox Christian leaders met in Bethlehem on December 30, 2009, and voted unanimously to boycott the reception of the denomination's Patriarch Theophilos III for Christmas celebrations on January 6, 2010, according to the Maan News website.
The decision came as a result of a meeting in the Orthodox Society headquarters in Bethlehem, following local leaders' dissatisfaction with the patriarch's unrealized promises to reverse land sales to Israel that saw the previous patriarch replaced.
The former Patriarch Irenaios I was voted out of the position in 2005 by the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulture, of which he had been the head.
The congregation in Jerusalem had been increasingly angered by the sale of church land to Israel, much of which was private Palestinian land given to the Church in trust before the 1967 war which resulted in Israel occupying the West Bank and annexing East Jerusalem.
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