US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday postponing the transfer of the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, in violation of both an explicit campaign pledge and US law.

Israeli officials slammed the move, saying the international community’s decision to maintain embassies outside the capital serves to reinforce Palestinian demands to re-divide the city.

Education Minister and Jewish Home Party Chairman Naftali Bennett said: “There is no peace based on the division of Jerusalem. Delaying the US embassy move will in fact have the opposite effect and damage the prospect of a lasting peace by nurturing false expectations among the Palestinians regarding the division of Jerusalem, which will never happen.”

“Only recognizing a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty will end illusions and pave the way to a sustainable peace with our neighbors,” Bennett concluded.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is seeking to nurture close ties with the new American administration after eight years of friction with former President Barack Obama, echoed Bennett’s statement, saying that “maintaining embassies outside the capital drives peace further away by helping keep alive the Palestinian fantasy that the Jewish people and the Jewish state have no connection to Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu, who has been rumored to have scuttled Trump’s plan to move the embassy shortly after Trump took the oath of office on January 20 in order to prevent a violent Palestinian reaction, added that “Israel is disappointed that the embassy will not move at this time; we appreciate today’s expression of President Trump’s friendship to Israel and his commitment to moving the embassy in the future.”