A diplomatic source in at UNESCO said on Thursday that Israel is considering returning to the UN's cultural organisation, five years after its fraught exit. 

The Israeli embassy in Paris and UNESCO stated that Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay during a visit to the French capital. 

During the meeting, Cohen raised the matter in the meeting, and Azoulay replied that "the decision to return Israel is up to the Israeli authorities," a UNESCO diplomat told AFP.

The embassy did not immediately comment on the content of the meeting between Cohen and Azoulay.

Israel withdrew from UNESCO in 2017 after then-U.S. President Donald Trump accused the organization of "bias against Israel."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement at the time that "UNESCO has become an arena of absurdity in which history is distorted rather than preserved."

UNESCO enraged Israel in July 2017 by including the Old City of Hebron in the list of endangered world heritage sites, describing the West Bank city as "Islamic." 

In 2011, UNESCO decided to accept Palestine as a full member state.