In a 2002 op-ed in "The Nation", Falk was highly critical of Operation Defensive Shield and described it as state-sponsored terrorism. He said the Palestinian demonstrations that followed Sharon’s "provocative visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque" were initially non-violent. The response of Israel, which Falk described as "excessive" and which involved "extrajudicial assassination of a range of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza", created a spiral of violence. Falk wrote the view of an "overwhelming majority" of the UN Security Council, and a UN Human Rights Commission inquiry of which he was a part, was that suicide bombings took place when "Palestinian resistance gradually ran out of military options" and suicide attacks appeared as the only way to inflict sufficient harm on Israel so that "the struggle could go on." The UN inquiries found that Israel was responsible for the escalation of violence and that its military response against the Palestinians was a violation of international law. Falk referred to the Passover massacre as "horrifying" and stated that Israel's response was "equally horrifying."