Rights group calls on AG to probe online praise for New Zealand killer

Brenton Tarrant, the suspect in the New Zealand mosque attacks, in Istanbul’s Ataturk International airport in Turkey on March 2016

Times of Israel reports, “An Arab civil rights group on Saturday called on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to order an investigation into Israelis who expressed support for the accused gunman in the massacre at two New Zealand mosques. Brenton Tarrant, a self-described fascist, has been charged with murder over Friday’s shooting rampage in Christchurch, in which 49 Muslim worshipers were killed.”

“The Mossawa Center, which advocates for Arab rights in Israel, flagged a number of Facebook posts and responses in the comments section of an article on the attack of Israelis it said identified with Tarrant and were engaging in incitement. One such post included images of Tarrant and a combat vest he apparently used in the attack. “A hero who is worthy of admiration,” the user wrote. “A very skilled young man. It really looks an actual computer game. Unbelievable,” another user wrote in response, referring to video Tarrant posted of the shooting.”…

““The heirs of the murderer Baruch Goldstein are celebrating another murder of worshipers,” Mossawa wrote on its Facebook page, referring to a Jewish extremist who shot to death 29 Palestinians in 1994 praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron.”  (more…)