The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO, denounced China's state-run media for equating Nobel Prize-winner the Dalai Lama to the Nazi perpetrator of the World War II Holocaust during which 6 million Jews were systematically murdered.
According to the New York Times, the commentary was posted on China Tibet Online and carried by the official Xinhua news agency. It accused the Dalai Lama of advocating policies that would result in the expulsion of ethnic Han Chinese from historically Tibetan parts of the country.
"The remarks of the Dalai Lama remind us of the cruel Nazis during the Second World War," it said, adding, "How similar it is to the Holocaust committed by Hitler on the Jews!"
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has the greatest regard for the Dalai Lama and his efforts on behalf of his people. Our Center honored him with our Humanitarian Prize in 1996, and he has always served as a role model for dissent with dignity. It is shocking, outrageous and totally unacceptable that any Chinese official would permit the denigrating of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust as a tactic to slander a spiritual leader who has earned the world's respect over the span of decades, precisely because he pursues his agenda through peace and dialogue. Indeed, the Dalai Lama stands for the values that the Nazis sought to destroy. We urge China Tibet Online and the Xinhua News Agency to apologize for this double slander.