[1] It describes itself as "a public movement dedicated to the protection of Israel’s national lands and resources" and aims to "[restore] the Zionist vision to its primary role in the Israeli policy process".
[2] It was founded in 2006 by Yehuda Eliahu and Bezalel Smotrich[3][4] as "response to a Supreme Court case against the illegal outpost of Harasha in Samaria" initiated by Peace Now in 2005.
[6] According to Gordon and Perugini, purpose was to counteract what its founders considered to be the improper use by "liberal" NGOs to "subvert" Israeli democracy by using the legal system to pursue advocacy of human rights when the left failed to achieve electoral success.
Smotrich, who appointed the former Yitzhar settler Hillel Roth as the ICA's deputy direction in April 2024, has managed to have the IDF transfer many of its power over by-laws to these civil servants, a measure which according to Michael Sfard, will effectively move Israel towards a de facto annexation of that territory.
It has also petitioned successfully to stop Israeli demolition orders against settler homes, as in the case of Har Bracha in April 2010, and Migron.
[14] After Yesh Din successfully petitioned the state to force settlers in the illegal Israeli outpost of El Matan to seal an unauthorized synagogue, Regavim retaliated by petitioning the Israeli Supreme Court to have a mosque, still under construction and serving 400 worshippers in Al Mufaqara, bulldozed in the West Bank on the grounds it was in Area C. Their suit was successful.
[20] In September 2011, Regavim submitted a petition to the ICC urging it to revoke the decision to receive the Palestinian Authority's declaration of recognizing the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction, which was a gentle attempt by PA for statehood recognition.
[26] Nearly 90 US lawmakers sent a letter to Joe Biden in late October 2024 urging him to sanction the NGO Regavim, saying it was involved in actions that led to the forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands in the West Bank.
[27] In February 2015 Regavim released a report[28] documenting the construction of houses funded by the British charity Oxfam and the European Union.
To "prove" historic Bedouin villages did not exist, Regavim uses aerial photographs from 1945 that Regavim says do not reveal the presence of such villages, ignoring, according to Rabbis for Human Rights, the fact that Bedouins used mud hunts or tents whose colour blended with that of the landscape, and, they argue, not visible on low resolution black-and-white aerial photographs.
[6] In May 2015, Regavim provided a study to Knesset members, who are working towards legislation to expropriate private land from Palestinians in return for compensation.
When the details from its own study were revealed, Regavim replied in a public statement that It is irresponsible to publish data that appears in the report; any discussion on this sensitive issue should be conducted with appropriate discretion in the proper forum.