Engage is a British website, and briefly an online journal (from 2006–07), that aims to help people counter the boycott Israel campaign.
[1] Engage describes its mission as to "challenge left and liberal antisemitism in the labour movement, in our universities and in public life."
[5] Hirsh was also quoted in relation to a proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions by the University and College Union in 2007.
In an essay, in the New Statesman, Nick Cohen described Engage's position as pointing out that "the act of singling out Israel as the only illegitimate state – in the absence of any coherent reason for doing so – is in itself anti-Semitic, irrespective of the motivation or opinions of those who make that claim," and noting that the Association of University Teachers provided no justification for singling out the Jewish State.
[11] An article in the online journal of International Marxist Tendency described Engage as "a group of academics... ostensibly set up to combat 'left-wing anti-Semitism' (but which in reality devotes much of its website space to articles beautifying Israeli foreign policy from a 'liberal' standpoint.