Asaduddin Owaisi’s Studio Ghibli-style posts on Eid eve back Palestine, reject Waqf Bill

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is among the politicians who hopped on the Ghibli trend wagon and shared animated pictures on social media. What Hyderabad MP, however, did differently was, unlike others, he chose a more serious issue to be part of the trend.

Owaisi used a Ghibli-style animation of his picture holding a banner reading ‘Palestine Zindabad’ – Long Live Palestine. Owaisi is leading a group of people with flags of India and Palestine in the background in the animation, accompanied by the 'Al Qudsu Lana' song by Pakistan-based Abdullah Mehboob.

Owaisi has been a vocal supporter of Palestine in the ongoing conflict with Israel. In June last year, he sparked a row while being sworn in as an Member of Parliament of the Lok Sabha by ending his oath with the words, “Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine.”

Owaisi's post comes on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr, the festival celebrated by Muslims to mark the end of Ramadan – the month of fasting.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Israel - Palestine conflict is one of the longest-running and most violent disputes in the world and its origins go back more than a century with Israel and Arab nations having fought many wars.

The tensions escalated on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, which followed aerial campaigns and ground operations within the Gaza Strip by Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

India has been in favour of a two-state solution to end the Palestinian dispute with Israel. It has, in fact, increased the financial support for Palestinian refugee welfare agencies in recent times. The ‘two-state solution’ is an internationally backed formula for peace between Israel and Palestine.

What is the Ghibli trend?

ChatGPT's new native image generator has gained popularity on the internet for its ability to generate Studio Ghibli-style images, among other effects.

OpenAI recently released this advanced image generator through an update on Chat GPT-4o, which allows users to generate images in legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's hand-drawn animation style.

Users can go to ChatGPT, and enter their prompts for Ghibli-style photos and it will either generate or transform their existing image into anime. It allows a maximum of three photos for free users.

In another post on Instagram, Owaisi shared his Studio Ghibli-style animation rejecting the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief has been slamming thee Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for the Bill and alleged that Bill is intended to snatch away graveyards, khanqahs, dargahs from Muslims.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on March 28 that Bill will be reintroduced in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. The session in its second leg ends on April 4 with only four business days left.