TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY GUILLAUME LAVALLEE - Journalist at Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Gideon Levy poses in his home on August 12, 2014 in the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv. After Haaretz commentator Gideon Levy accused air force pilots of perpetrating "the cruelest (and) most despicable deeds" against Gaza's weakest and most helpless," his employer hired him bodyguards. AFP PHOTO/GIL COHEN-MAGEN

Israel’s ‘most hated’ columnist

Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy has been called ‘the most hated man in Israel’, and hostility follows him around the world because of his advocacy for the rights of Palestinians and trenchant criticism of Israel’s policies.

Levy is in Australia to present the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide – a speech titled, ‘The First 50 years: Israeli Society and the Occupation’.

Listen to the interview by Fauziah Ibrahim with Gideon Levy on the ABC Sunday Extra program.