The starting point of legal proceedings in general and criminal proceedings in particular is the pursuit of truth. The criminal proceeding, as a rule, revolves around the reconstruction of the factual event. The reenactment of the events, the investigation of the truth, is a condition for the realization of the defendant's substantive rights. The purpose of the laws of evidence, which derives from this, is to expose the truth or to reconstruct the factual mask (on this purpose of the law of evidence as opposed to the economic approach to the law of evidence from a critical perspective, see: Talia Fischer, "The Law of Evidence in the Eyes of the Theory," Iyunei Mishpat 39 107 (2016, hereinafter: Fischer, The Law of Evidence). The law of evidence establishes the rule that all evidence must be brought before the court. Thus, in our case, the Evidence Ordinance [New Version], 5731-1971 (hereinafter: the Evidence Ordinance), establishes in section 1 the possibility of summoning any person to testify (subject to exceptions). Section 2 of the Evidence Ordinance states that everyone is eligible to testify (with the exception of sections 3 and 4 that relate to first-degree relatives and are not our business).This is also the case in our sources, as it is written: "And when a soul sins and hears the voice of these voices, and he is a witness or sees or knows, if he does not speak and bear his iniquity" (Vayikra 5:1 – for the interpretation of the section, see, Aviad HaCohen, On the Right to Silence and Its Consequences, Daat, Parashat Vayikra, 5700"H," can be viewed at: http://www.daat.ac.il/mishpat-ivri/skirot/315-2.htm).
This rule has exceptions that prevent the submission of evidence to the court, such as the rule that prevents the receipt of hearsay testimony (when there are objections to these exceptions. Bentham is considered one of the well-known philosophers who opposed the rules of disqualification, see Jeremy Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Evidence, 15 (1827); For an analysis of the matter, see: Fischer, The Laws of Evidence, ibid., at p. 109).