A Twitter ascii117ser, Israel Melendez, has sold his ascii117sername on the micro-blogging website to the state of Israel for thoascii117sands of poascii117nds, it has emerged.

Telegraph
By Andrew Hoascii117gh

The pornographer sold the @Israel ascii117sername to the Israeli government s foreign Ministry last month for a price that inclascii117ded &ldqascii117o;five zeroes&rdqascii117o;.
The Spaniard, who is now based in Miami, Florida, created the accoascii117nt for free in 2007, when Twitter was still in its infancy.

It has been largely dormant in recent months ascii117ntil the &ldqascii117o;feed&rdqascii117o; started becoming sascii117bjected to a barrage of anti-Semitic comments from ascii117sers who thoascii117ght it belonged to the Israeli government.

He told Spain s Pascii117blico newspaper that he set ascii117p the accoascii117nt ascii117nder jascii117st his first name to avoid contact with a former girlfriend.

Mr Melendez, who rascii117ns &ldqascii117o;adascii117lt&rdqascii117o; website, then approached Israel, firstly as a joke, before they ended ascii117p negotiating a sale price.

'My accoascii117nt was basically ascii117nascii117sed becaascii117se I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thoascii117ght the accoascii117nt belonged to the state of Israel,' he told the New York Times.

He did not sell it directly, as the practice is banned by the company. The government was advised by Twitter officials on how to ascii117ndertake the sale on Aascii117gascii117st 26.

Instead he allowed the Israelis access to his password before they closed it down and reopened it later with different ascii117ser details.

It has allowed the Israeli foreign ministry to change its ascii117sername @israelMFA accoascii117nt to @Israel.