'Do You Have a Baby Shredder?' Activist Confronts Israeli Arms Firms in Resurfaced DC Expo Video

Pro-Palestinian campaigner Abu Rahs forced the realities of the ground in Gaza directly onto the exhibition floor when an undercover confrontation inside a major Washington defence convention resurfaced across social media.

Filmed during the Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition in October 2024 and shared anew this week, the footage shows the Palestine News Network founder walking past exhibition stalls hosted by Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems whilst asking bewildered corporate representatives to direct him towards 'baby shredding technology'.

The provocative demonstration, conceived to pierce what Rahs described as creeping public desensitisation towards the human cost of the conflict in Gaza, drew polarised reactions from defence personnel who alternately chuckled, attempted to obstruct his camera lens, or summoned venue security and municipal police.

While the original recording generated millions of views when circulated by British-Iraqi rapper Lowkey in late 2024, its secondary resurgence on X on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, highlights persistent international scrutiny of defence contractors, even after a negotiated ceasefire took effect in October 2025 amid continuing reports of civilian casualties.

A Clip Returns Two Years On

The X account Earth Hippy reposted the video on Wednesday 28 October 2026, US time, with the caption: 'Excuse me, do you have a baby shredder.' It labelled the footage as the 'Israeli section at weapons expo Washington DC', in a post that had been viewed almost 230,000 times at the time of writing.

'You are a FKN legend bro,' the account wrote of the man behind the camera. The post drew about 12,000 likes and 2,800 reposts as it travelled across the platform for a second time.

The footage went viral in October 2024. British-Iraqi rapper and activist Lowkey shared it at the time with the line 'Is this the baby shredding section?' and wrote that representatives of Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms company, were being confronted at an arms fair in Washington.

That post has been viewed about 2.1 million times and liked more than 70,000 times. The clip it carried is credited to the Palestine News Network, the outlet run by the activist who filmed it.

Inside the Expo

The exhibition was AUSA 2024, held from 14 to 16 October in Washington, The New Arab reported. The activist approached the Elbit Systems stall.

'We're looking for the good baby shredding tech,' he says in the footage. TRT World quoted another line: 'We are looking for baby shredding technology.'

He went from booth to booth asking representatives about what he called 'baby shredding' technology, a deliberately provocative phrase rather than the name of any product.

At one point, he asked whether he was in the 'baby-killing section.' Some officials at the Israeli booths laughed, while others appeared angry, according to the outlet.

Some representatives pretended not to understand him, and some tried to switch off his camera, TRT World reported. Expo staff moved to stop the filming and police were called. None of the reports said he was arrested or charged.

Clips of the exchange spread quickly. Defensehere reported that online communities rallied behind the protester and pointed to Israel's attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, which were continuing at the time.

The Activist Behind the Camera

The man filming is Abu Rahs, founder of the Palestine News Network, as reported by Turkey's Anadolu Agency in 2024. He filmed undercover.

He said his aim was to show the conflict from a fresh angle and break the normalisation of violence and suffering. 'We get desensitised, so the goal is to show the same message from a new angle,' he told TRT World.

He argued that taking risks and being creative is often necessary to deliver a strong message. He said he received constant threats, and that 10 of his TikTok videos had been deleted since 7 October 2023. 'There's heavy censorship, especially on anything related to Palestine,' he said.

His network, TRT World reported, has made a point of highlighting the role of defence companies in Israel's campaign in Gaza. The expo, held just over a year after the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and triggered the war, gave him a room full of them.

Supporters online called him a 'legend', a 'hero' and a 'revolutionary', TRT World reported. One user said his protest carried more moral weight than the military might of the US, Israel and the European Union.

Why the Footage Still Lands

When the video was filmed, more than 42,000 people had been killed in Gaza, according to figures cited by TRT World from the territory's health authorities.

The video reached millions of viewers in 2024, mainly on X, Anadolu reported, and Rahs said his Palestine News Network account had faced censorship due to its coverage.

A ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, but Palestinians have continued to be killed. More than 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire was reached last year, according to local health officials, Politico reported last week.

Against that backdrop, a two-year-old clip of a man with a phone camera walking between weapons stalls and asking a deliberately provocative question has found a fresh audience.