share this story In a massive defeat for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' campaign to delegitimize Israel, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that Palestine is not a "state" and it therefore does not have jurisdiction to investigate alleged "war crimes" committed by Israel in the "territory of Palestine since 1 July 2002." On January 22, 2009, the Palestinian Authority lodged a letter with the ICC, purporting to accept the ICC's jurisdiction in order to bring war crimes cases against Israeli officials at the ICC. The application was lodged in the wake of Israel's defensive Gaza War, aimed at ending years of rocket attacks from Gaza by Hamas. In an official statement released today , the ICC said that under the Rome Statute (which governs the court's jurisdiction), only for the "relevant bodies at the United Nations or the Assembly of States Parties to make the legal determination whether Palestine qualifies as a state for the purpose of acceding to the Rome Statute and thereby enabling the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court." According to the statute only internationally recognized states can join the ICC. The ICC said that although the Palestinians claim to have been recognized as a state in bilateral relations by more than 130 governments and by certain international organisations, including United Nation bodies (such as UNESCO), the relevant decision for the purposes of its determination is the status which has been granted to it by the UN General Assembly. At present, Palestine has only been granted