This past week, something rare happened: A major U.S. media outlet actually showed the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians.

But the candid reporting by ’60 Minutes,’ America’s most respected news program, has unleashed a furious response from major pro-Zionist groups. According to the Jewish Voice for Peace Detroit chapter and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Michigan, they’ve generated over 29,000 letters of complaint — many before the episode even aired.

In response to the letters over the episode, which showed Palestinian Christians dealing with the massive struggles of life under occupation, community members are being asked to thank CBS and 60 Minutes for the hard-hitting episode.

The episode can be viewed at //www.ThankYou60Minutes.org, where a petition can be filled out thanking CBS for not caving in to pressure from the Israeli government to not air it.

Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians have endured decades of unlawful home demolitions, checkpoints, land confiscation, detentions without charges, and much more. That’s primarily why Palestinians are leaving, as they noted on the episode, and why Palestinian Christians issued a call to Christians in other lands to help create pressure on the Israeli government through divestment campaigns.

The push back against the airing of the episode from the Israeli government reached all the way to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to a report by the Haaretz newspaper in Israel, and also drew the ire of Ambassador Michael Oren, who was interviewed on the show. Oren said that the Christians were struggling due to Islamic extremism, a claim those interviewed on the show denied, instead pointing the lens back at the Israeli occupation. One family brought CBS cameras into their home in Bethlehem, which borders the massive separation wall and armed guard towers.

ADC-MI also said in a press release that the segment was also notable in that Oren called the Chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of 60 Minutes to protest the reporting of the piece, before it was even aired, a fact that veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, Bob Simon, noted in the segment and about which he confronted Ambassador Oren on air, saying that he had never received such a call in his many years as a journalist.

CBS is also receiving comments on the episode via the email address 60m@cbsnews.com.