Zionist activists are planning a grand display of defiance for the upcoming visit of US President George W. Bush to Israel, who is hoping to push plans to partition the land.

On Tuesday, January 8 the day before the projected date of Bushs Jerusalem visit amassive building campaign in the West Bankwill be kicked off in Jerusalems southeastern Har Homa neighborhood. There, extremist leaders and activists will declare Israels right to build in Jerusalem and in the entire Land of Israel.

Since the Annapolis conference, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have continued to meet, but the key bone of contention between the two sides is Israel's continued construction in the settlements. The Palestinians are particularly upset over a tender by the Housing Ministry for the construction of 307 housing units in Har Homa, which is on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.

A senior official in Jerusalem said both sides are waiting for President Bush's visit to the region in January in the hope that the U.S. leader's arrival will push the process towards a breakthrough.

Official sources in Jerusalem say the Har Homa imbroglio is the result of a decision by low-ranking government bureaucrats in the Housing Ministry. They say that Olmert was not informed of the decision in advance, but on the international front, these explanations do not seem to be enlisting much support.

Moreover, the Har Homa affair exposed the differences in the perceptions that both parties adhere to. As far as Israel is concerned, the neighborhood is an integral part of unified Jerusalem, and not part of the territories. Construction at Har Homa is not subject to the same bureaucratic maze that any construction in the territories - be it a house, shack or electricity line - must endure before it is approved.

The Palestinians and their supporters in the international community do not make that distinction. To them, any Israeli construction east of the Green Line, which was Israel's border before the 1967 Six-Day War, is an illegal settlement. They treat construction in East Jerusalem much the same as they treat construction in the settlement blocs in the West Bank.

To the Palestinians, construction in the territories is an obstacle to peace and an act that jeopardizes the negotiations. Israel has demanded that the Palestinians fulfill their duties according to the road map plan for peace, which the U.S. devised for both parties. But Israel has failed to meet its own obligations such as the evacuation of settlements, a total freeze on all construction in the territories and allowing the Palestinians to reopen their institutions in East Jerusalem.

From Har Homa, the Zionist activists will leave, with vehicles loaded with building materials, for points throughout the West Bank.

The leaders of the umbrella organization of several extra-parliamentary groups that have taken part in various grassroots activism since the 2005 Disengagement, say they intend to thwart plans to establish a Palestinian Authority state by creating new Jewish communities.

With George W. Bush's planned visit to Israel in January, in which he will pressure the Olmert government to stop building the Land of Israel and even to divide it, it is essential that we broadcast to the entire world the message of Jewish steadfastness and loyalty to the entire Land of Israel, they say.

Participants include the Land of Israel Faithful, Youth for Eretz Israel, Women in Green, Homesh First, The Committee to Save the People and the Land, Komemiyut, Maginei Eretz, Mattot Arim, Land of Israel Forum, VeYirashtem Otah, local Action Committees and the Committee for the Expansion of Homat Shmuel (Har Homa).

Supporters the world over are being given the opportunity to purchase cinder blocks, cement, generators, tools, sand, gravel, pipes, chemical toilets, doors, windows, tin roofs, cement mixers and other building materials.

Organizers plan on displaying the names of those who pay for the truckloads of supplies on the side of the vehicles, emphasizing that the Jews living in Israel's Biblical heartland have the support of friends from all over the world.

Herzl Yechezkel, of the Committee for the Expansion of Har Homa, says that Har Homa currently has 20,000 residents, but there are plans to triple that figure in the future. Our message to Bush, said Yechezkel, is that you don't mess with Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our heart and if you try to harm our heart that is very serious.