UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

JNS.org – The United States and Israel have lost their voting rights at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) two years after the countries stopped paying their dues over the granting of membership to the Palestinians.

According to UNESCO’s constitution, any member who fails to pay dues for two years loses its voting rights. In 2011, he U.S. and Israel ceased all activity in UNESCO after the organization voted to give the Palestinians full membership. The U.S. Congress in the 1990s passed a law saying that the U.S. must stop providing money to any U.N. agency that admits the Palestinians, the New York Times reported.

The U.S., which was the largest contributor to UNESCO, criticized the cultural agency for bypassing the peace process.