During a tour of Northern West bank settlement, former cabinet minister and IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot on Wednesday visited Shuvael, an illegal Israeli farming outpost in the northern West Bank that was the site of a violent attack last year against an Israeli lawyer who was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten by residents of the wildcat settlement.

The visit drew criticism from settlement watchdog groups, who urged Eisenkot not to turn a blind eye to the violence carried out by the settlers against the local Palestinian population.

Eisenkot, whose centrist Yashar party is currently polling at 13 seats, visited Shuvael as part of a tour he conducted of settlements in the Samaria district in the northern West Bank.

The Samaria District Council put out a press statement about Eisenkot’s visit, saying he visited the settlements of Bruchin, Peduel, and Ariel, and met with Samaria District Council Chariman Yossi Dagan.

Dagan has worked assiduously in recent years to expand existing settlements as much as possible, help establish and support illegal outposts such as Shuvael, and lobby the government to legalize existing illegal outposts.

According to the press statement, Eisenkot was “impressed by the developments on the ground and the extent of civil and security activity.”

The Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the........

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