Rabbi Uri Sherki, whose son was killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, says that Israel is in denial over the fact that it is in a war with the Palestinians. PHOTO: NRG/Arik Sultan.

Rabbi Uri Sherki, whose son was run over and killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem last month, said that Israel is in denial about the constant state of war it finds itself in.

“Because we are in the midst of a struggle, we should assume that the [incident] was a terrorist attack until proven otherwise,” he told Israel’s NRG news.

In the interview with NRG, Sherki said that his comments were justified because “today we find ourselves in the framework of a struggle, a constant war with [extremist] Islam and the Arab-Nationalist feeling in Israel, some of whom call it Palestinian.”

And in light of this struggle, said Sherki, to deny that Israel is at war “makes us weak. When we refuse to define the problem as it is, we also don’t know how to respond properly, like a person who has a heart disease but is given medication for a gastrointestinal problem.”

It took five days for the attack that killed Shalom Yochai Sherki to be recognized as a terrorist attack because police had to prove it was not simply a traffic accident.

Sherki sees this hesitation as part of a larger issue that has overtaken Israeli society. He said that he understands that from the perspective of “professional ethnics,” the police have to remain cautious about giving definite answers, “and I also do not want to condemn an innocent man. But the question is, what is the underlying assumption?”

Sherki explained that, for police, an incident is not a terrorist attack unless it is proven to be so afterwards.

“But, it is also possible to operate in the opposite manner: for the starting point to be that this is a terrorist attack, until it is proven otherwise,” said Sherki.