As US Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the West Bank this week for his fifth visit in three months, the reality for Palestinians has not improved under the direct rule of the Israeli occupation, nor has the Israeli government shown much interest in the two-state solution.

On the contrary, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon stated on June 6 in an interview with the Times of Israel that “there’s no majority for a two-state solution” within the Israeli cabinet. At the same time, Israel plans on expanding and building more Jewish-only settlement units — illegal under international law — while its occupation forces continue to violently subdue West Bank village protests.

Kerry is tasked with restarting the peace process between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government, a term that has become a smokescreen of endless rounds of fruitless negotiations while occupation policies continue without hindrance.

The West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum, with a population of 4,400, exemplifies the status quo by its weekly Friday protests against confiscation of their land by the settlement of Qedumim. Since its establishment in 1978, the settlement has expropriated 7,000 dunums out of the village’s total land area of 25,000 dunums. The villagers need special coordination permits issued by the Israeli military to access a further 11,000 dunums of their land for farming.