‘Collaborative displacement’: Security crisis, emergency powers and spatial exclusion in mixed urban spaces

This article develops the concept of collaborative displacement to explain how legal intervention and private social mobilisation interact to produce spatial exclusion during periods of security crisis. Drawing on Critical Legal Geography and Critical Legal Studies, it argues that emergency legal measures may generate exclusionary consequences extending beyond formal legal sanction by legitimising suspicion, facilitating social mobilisation, and diffusing responsibility across public and private actors. The analysis centres on the case of Dr Dalal Abu Amneh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel whose arrest following a social media post after the 7 October 2023 attacks was followed by sustained harassment that ultimately forced her family to leave their home. Rather than resulting from a single legal decision, displacement emerged through the cumulative interaction of legal enforcement, public exposure, institutional practices, and informal pressure. The article introduces collaborative displacement as a socio-legal framework for analysing how democratic legal systems may reshape urban belonging and minority presence under conditions of crisis.