The State of Israel has purchased the Twitter handle @israel, which was previously owned by an entrepreneur from Miami named Israel Melendez. The amount for which the handle was sold has not been disclosed, but the Deputy Israeli Consul General in Miami, Paul Hirschson, states that the sum was reasonable.
Melendez told The New York Times that he hardly used the profile as it was inundated with antisemitic comments. “I received dozens of nasty messages daily from people who thought the profile belonged to the State of Israel,” he said. Melendez also owns several pornographic domains, but Israel was not concerned with what the man otherwise does. “We actually did not care who he was and what he used his profile for. We wanted the name Israel in the handle because we are the State of Israel. That was the only thing that mattered,” said Hirschson. (hrt.hr)
