Outrage, calls for action as Israelis praise New Zealand mosque massacre

A Palestinian human rights organisation has called on Tel Aviv to take action against Israelis who have shown support for the Christchurch terror attacks that killed 50 Muslim worshipers.

The Mossawa Center made the appeal on Saturday after documenting numerous Israelis praising the massacres at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday.

"Hate speech and incitement become terrorism," the rights group tweeted, urging the Israeli Attorney General to open an investigation into online "racial incitement and support" for the terror attack.

It raised the case of a Palestinian woman who was jailed for five months last year over poems she posted online that Israeli authorities ruled were "incitement to violence and support for a terrorist organisation".

"If Palestinian citizen of Israel, Dareen Tatour, was put under house arrest and imprisoned for her poetry, what will happen to the Israeli citizens who celebrated the acts of terror in Christchurch? Probably nothing," the group said.

The Mossawa Center also posted screenshots of Israelis on Facebook praising the Christchurch mass shootings that targeted Muslims gathering for Friday prayers.

"This is a worthy hero," said one Facebook user in Hebrew, commenting on a photo of the alleged gunman. "Just kill them all," another post reads.

Israeli authorities use advanced online surveillance methods to sift through social media content to find evidence of incitement to violence.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested on the grounds of inciting violence on social media.

The law is designed to prohibit speech by Israeli citizens that could result in an attack, however it has been applied disproportionately to Israeli Palestinians and residents of East Jerusalem.

In the West Bank, fully under Israeli military law, there is an even broader prohibition against incitement.