Chaïm Nissim (21 November 1949 in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Chaim Nissim
, biography on Chaim Nissim's blog – 11 April 2017 in Switzerland) was an ecological

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and militant, and a

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

politician. He was the perpetrator of a rocket attack on the

Superphénix Superphénix ( en, Superphoenix) or SPX was a nuclear power station prototype on the Rhône river at Creys-Malville in France, close to the border with Switzerland. Superphénix was a 1,242 MWe fast breeder reactor with the twin goals of reproce ...

nuclear plant, on 18 January 1982.

Biography

Chaïm Nissim was born in

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 Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. 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 A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mate ...

"can explode with their fast neutrons", 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

nuclear plant, then under construction. Five

rocket-propelled grenade A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are a ...

s were launched at the incomplete containment building – two hit and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core. The weapon, a

RPG-7 The RPG-7 (russian: link=no, РПГ-7, Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт, Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot) is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher. ...

, was obtained from the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

through

Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...

and the Belgian

Communist Combatant Cells Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC; Communist Combatant Cells, also known as Fighting Communist Cells) was a Communist Belgian urban guerrilla organization. The cells were active for less than two years in the mid-1980s; primarily engaged in ...

. 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 The Grand Council of Geneva (french: Grand Conseil de Genève) is the legislature of the canton of Geneva, in Switzerland. Geneva, styled as a 'Republic and Canton', has a unicameral legislature. The Grand Council was established in its prese ...

, under the aegis of the

Green Party of Switzerland The Green Party of Switzerland (german: GRÜNE Schweiz; french: Les VERT-E-S suisses; it, VERDI svizzeri; rm, VERDA svizra) is the fourth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland and the largest party that is not represented on th ...

. 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. Nissim supported the association

NOÉ21 Noé21 (from the , meaning "New economic orientation for the 21st century") is a non-governmental organisation founded in 2003 and based in Geneva. It promotes solutions to climate change. Noé21 is a member of the Swiss Climate Alliance, the ...

, a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

on energy policies.noe21 members

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nissim, Chaim Eco-terrorism Swiss Jews 1949 births 2017 deaths École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne alumni 20th-century Swiss politicians 21st-century Swiss politicians