State of Israel buys Twitter address from porn operator

The state of Israel confirmed Tuesday it had purchased an @israel Twitter address from a Miami porn site operator, whose feed had been the subject of anti-Semitic comments.

Paul Hirschson, deputy consul general for Israel in Miami, told AFP that the Israeli government wanted to obtain the @israel account from the man, whose name is Israel Melendez.

"Once we decided that we wanted to use the name Israel in our Twitter account we started to look for who had it," the diplomat said.

Although Melendez also operates a pornographic website, Hirschson said that for the state of Israel, "it was not important to know who he was and what he used the account for. We needed to have the name of Israel because we are the state of Israel."

The purchase price was not disclosed but Hirschson said it was a "reasonable" sum.

"He said he wanted to take his wife and children to a nice restaurant for a good dinner," Hirschson said.

Melendez had told The New York Times the address had been subject to a flood of anti-Semitic comments.

"My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel," he told the daily.