When you put 2 .3 million people for 18 years now in the biggest cage in the world, you should expect any kind of resistance and struggle, even the most brutal and cruel and criminal one. And this is what we faced. And then the aftermath,” says Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in conversation with Pervaiz Alam on “London Vārta”, a Cine Ink podcast series.

Once the British daily, The Independent, described Gideon Levy as the most hated man in Israel – and perhaps the most heroic.

Israeli columnist and commentator writing for the newspaper Haaretz, Gideon Levy has emerged as a long-time critic of his country’s leadership.

Born in 1953 in Tel Aviv, Levy tells Pervaiz Alam how his grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust but somehow his parents survived and came to Israel as refugees. His father earned his living through a bakery shop.

In his youth days Levy was a zionist and joined the Israeli Defence Force as a radio reporter. He worked as an aide and spokesman for Simon Peres, the Labour leader, who went on to become the PM and President of Israel.

Levy has authored two books; “The Punishment of Gaza” and “The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe”.