Chaïm Nissim (; 21 November 1949Chaim Nissim , biography on Chaim Nissim's blog – 11 April 2017) was an Israeli born militant ecological activist, and a Green Party of Switzerland politician. He was the perpetrator of a rocket attack on the Superphénix nuclear plant, on 18 January 1982.
Biography Chaïm Nissim was born in Jerusalem in 1949. He was raised and studied in Israel up to the age of 14, when his father was appointed director of an Israeli bank and his family moved to Geneva, Switzerland. Nissim obtained a degree in electronical and computer engineering at the EPFL in 1973.
Activist background and attack on Superphénix For ten years, Nissim, believing that fast breeder reactor "can explode with their fast neutrons","les surgénérateurs comme Creys-Malville, qui, avec leurs neutrons rapides, peuvent faire explosion" did everything he could to stop the construction of the Superphénix nuclear plant, including training himself for underground guerilla, notably sabotaging electricity pylons with explosives.
On 18 January 1982, Nissim fired five rockets on the Superphénix nuclear plant, then under construction. Five rocket-propelled grenades were launched at the incomplete containment building – two hit and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core.
The weapon, a RPG-7, was obtained from the Red Army Faction through Carlos the Jackal and the Belgian Communist Combatant Cells.
Nissim states that:
However, the plant manager disagreed with the previous statement, saying that the twenty workers on site were put in danger and that one rocket landed 20 meters away from a worker.
Nissim further stated:
Political career In 1985, Chaïm Nissim was elected member of the Grand Council of Geneva, under the aegis of the Green Party of Switzerland. He held the position until 2001.
On 8 May 2003, Nissim went public about the rocket attack of 1982, publishing a book on the subject and his connections to terrorist groups.Chaïm Nissim, L'amour et le monstre : roquettes contre Creys-Malville, Lausanne, Paris, Favre, 2004See also this
Nissim supported the association NOÉ21, a think tank on energy policies.noe21 members
References