Last month, during a live radio interview, an Israeli mayor from the Galilee said he did not want Palestinian citizens of Israel to use public swimming pools, citing hygiene reasons.

Speaking on Radio Kol Chai on July 28, Moti Dotan, head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council, said: “I don’t hate Arabs, but I don’t want them at my pools. I don’t go to their pools, either.” Palestinian “hygiene culture is not like ours,” as Palestinians swim in their clothes and leave behind trash at public pools, he claimed.

Dotan said his views were based on “cultural differences,” not racism, but his remarks recall official segregation in the U.S. South and racial apartheid in South Africa.

“If [Arabs] would behave according to our norms, then I’d have no problem. But that doesn’t happen, so I generalize,” he said.