
Historian of China and Inner Asia at @Sydney_Uni. Author of Uyghur Nation (2016), China Panic (2021). Views my own.
Sydney, New South Wales
Joined January 2013
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USyd @NTEUNSW members are striking again next week! Lots to fight for: job security, research rights, AI protections, freedom of expression, pay and more. Join the union to participate: join.nteu.au
David Brophy retweeted
Khatayi’s book is the most in-depth, sophisticated account of China’s government, society, and culture written by any foreigner before the era of European colonial empires. Now translated into English for the first time.
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-bo…
David Brophy retweeted
Is Zionism racism?
To answer this question requires a proper understanding of Zionism in both theory and practice.
Zionism is essentially a synonym for Jewish nationalism. It is the belief that Jews constitute a distinct people and nation, and on this basis require the establishment of a nation-state of their own to achieve their natural rights and collective potential.
In putting forth such views, the late-nineteenth-century founders of the Zionist movement were first and foremost adopting and reflecting the nationalist milieu and principles dominant in Europe, the environment in which they were formed and in which they operated.
Yet, from the very outset Zionism was different than other European nationalism. Unlike for example the Greeks, Serbs, Poles, or Italians, Zionism’s intended constituents – the Jews of Europe – did not have an ancient homeland on the European continent in which they remained a majority.
The Zionist movement was unwilling as well as unable to challenge an existing European state to carve out an independent state in which Jews, like other European peoples, would enjoy uncontested demographic, territorial, and political supremacy.
Its leaders instead sought to acquire the cooperation and sponsorship of a European power to colonize and establish a state in territory outside Europe. Palestine was not the only non-European territory proposed for this venture. Various others in Africa, the Americas, Australia, as well as Cyprus were also considered, several quite seriously.
In each of these cases the Zionist movement was proceeding from another principle dominant in Europe at the time. None of these territories were uninhabited, yet their inhabitants did not possess inalienable rights, and could be freely subordinated, dispossessed, and even exterminated in the service of European power.
The Zionist movement ultimately settled on Palestine for its nation-state project. Enabled by what the pre-eminent Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi termed “the British shield”, its project met with success in 1948 with the establishment of the Israeli state.
Israel could not have been established as a Jewish state without the mass dispossession and expulsion of the Arabs of Palestine, and the wholesale usurpation of their lands and properties. Israel could not have developed as a Zionist state without the systematic application of structural racism against its non-Jewish citizens and the enforcement of apartheid regimes against Arab populations beyond its initial boundaries that would come under its control in subsequent decades.
Crucially, the exact same pattern would have been implemented, by design, if the Zionist movement had opted for Uganda, Libya, or any other territory under its consideration instead of Palestine. It is this which distinguishes Zionism from most (but not all) other nationalisms.
In other words, the British Green Party, like the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 3379 of 1975, got it exactly right.
Although the Chancellor and University Senate have rejected it, the Alumni Council (the Standing Committee of Convocation) has the authority to call a meeting of Convocation, and we're now asking it to do so. honisoit.com/2026/09/usyd-se…
Joining some colleagues for a discussion on Australia-China issues this evening (5:30 AEST). "History of the Present: Australia’s China Debate." Sign up for the Zoom link here: eventbrite.com.au/e/history-…
Disappointing to see that USyd Senate has rejected the request for a Convocation (signed by 600+ staff and alumni) to discuss the university's ties with Israeli institutions, offering an alternative "community engagement forum" in its place. sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/n…
USyd Senate will vote this morning on whether to allow alumni and staff to hold a Convocation on ties with Israel. Senior management’s support for such ties is completely at odds with the views of the wider University community. Will the Senate give it a voice?
David Brophy retweeted
The affirmative case in the 2026 SRC Referendum has been called. 3,554 students, or 92% of formal ballots cast, voted YES in the referendum to sever the University of Sydney's institutional ties with Israel and genocide. The students have spoken (again) and USyd must act!
According to this, our university has a partnership with a company that supplies a key ingredient in Israeli artillery shells theshot.net.au/uncategorized…
David Brophy retweeted
Australia's Royal Commission into Antisemitism has spent months letting Zionist witnesses deny genocide and recast Palestine solidarity as hate, laying the groundwork to criminalize protest, speech, & scholarship. Co-written with @NoamPeleg
mondoweiss.net/2026/09/insid…
David Brophy retweeted
“If there was ever a time to dust off the participatory mechanisms of our universities and bring them back to life, it is now.”
David Brophy on the attempt to convene a Convocation for Gaza at the University of Sydney. overland.org.au/2026/09/a-co…
The USyd Chancellor has rejected the call from alumni & staff for a Convocation, but the question now goes to the Senate on September 25. I go into some of the history of the institution here: overland.org.au/2026/09/a-co…
Excellent picket line at Victoria Park steps - one of many that completely shut campus down today. We’ll do it again if we have to. @NTEUnion
"Alumni and staff call for University of Sydney to hold convocation on Palestine" @honi_soit honisoit.com/2026/08/alumni-…
David Brophy retweeted
Update video on the Zionist lawfare attack on @jkeaneSDN and me. As the genocide continues, and in the face of delays and obstructions, we will not be silenced. Please share our appeal for funds. Our lawyers are tireless and dedicated. They can't be asked to work for nothing.
"It is understood Oryon will be given police protection for the entirety of the race." What a way to ruin a marathon. Imagine training for this day only to end up in a pack with IDF war-criminals surrounded by police... sportingnews.com/au/tsn/news…
David Brophy retweeted
The University of Sydney (Amendment Act) Rule 1999 requires Convocation to “hold at least 1 meeting in each year”. The last meeting it held, however, was over three decades ago.
And they wonder why there’s a crisis of governance of our universities.
The @Sydney_Uni is facing an alumni revolt over Israel.
More than 450 graduates and staff, including a deputy vice-chancellor and Australian AM and OAM recipients, signed a letter demanding a rare Convocation meeting (the first in over three decades) to discuss the university's ties to Israel and free speech on campus.
The signatories accuse the university of a "profound moral failure" over Gaza and a "suppression of dissent" on campus.
deepcutnews.com/p/alumni-rev…

















