TENSIONS were still running high in Israel today as political factions opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began setting up negotiating teams after he paused a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary.

But there appears to be no sign of compromise as Mr Netanyahu seeks to find a balance between those members of his ultra-right wing coalition who are demanding the reforms, and those protesting against them.

Three months of demonstrations against the overhaul plan intensified this week and Israel's main trade union centre, Histadrut, declared a general strike, leading to chaos that shut down much of the country and threatened to paralyse the economy.

In a major speech on Monday, Mr Netanyahu acknowledged the divisions caused by the proposals and announced a month’s delay to the legislation. 

The prime minister, currently under investigation on bribery and fraud allegations, said he wanted “to avoid civil war” and would seek a compromise with political opponents.

“I, as prime minister, am pausing for dialogue,” Mr Netanyahu said in his speech, after tens of thousands demonstrated outside the parliament building in Jerusalem.

He vowed to reach a “broad consensus" during the summer session of parliament, which begins on April 30.

The country’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, said pausing the legislative blitz was the right thing and offered to oversee the negotiating teams. 

While some anti-government protesters temporarily stepped aside, the Umbrella Movement of Resistance Against Dictatorship said it would hold a new protest later on Tuesday and again on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, its practice over the last three months.

“Protesters who take to the streets are not stupid,” the key group said in a statement. “Millions of citizens who have protested until now will not give up.”