Total population of half UN countries backing Trump's Jerusalem plan is 191,000 - smaller than Huntsville, Alabama

Size isn't everything but the total population of half of the UN countries that supported Donald Trump's plan to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital wouldn't be enough to fill the United States' 125th biggest town.

Of the seven other UN states apart from Israel and the US that backed Trump's plan, four are Pacific Ocean nations many might struggle to place on a map.

While hailing from locations of undoubted beauty, the leaders of the Pacific Ocean nations of Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia are unlikely to stop the traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC.

The total population of the four UN members, according to latest estimates is around 191,000, which is smaller than downtown Huntsville, Alabama, the 125th biggest city in the United States.

Halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand lies Nauru, which is around eight square miles and home to around 13,000 people. It is renowned for its phosphate exports thanks to its rich deposits of bird droppings.

It is not afraid to stand alone, both geographically and politically, as in 2009 it became one of only four UN members to recognise the independence of Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia. It also the centre of controversy over its place as a processing centre for refugees.

Palau is an archipelago of 300 islands drizzled across 500 square kilometres in the western Pacific, north east of Papua New Guinea. Although it is a presidential republic, its 21,000-strong population relies heavily on US investment and uses the greenback for its currency.

Nudging the Equator are the Marshall Islands whose 53,000 people live across its 29 coral atolls. It is host to the world's largest shark sanctuary which spreads across 2 million square kilometres. Home to Bikini atoll, it was the site for US nuclear testing in the 1950s.

The Federated States of Micronesia on the other hand has a population of 103,000 spread out across its 600 islands that stretch out over one million square miles. It became independent from the United States in 1986 and is a US associated state.

The other countries opposing the UN resolution which effectively rejected the US plan for Jerusalem, were more sizeable and were Guatemala (16m) its neighbour Honduras (9.1m) and the west African nation of Togo (7.6m) as well as of course Israel itself.

Donald Trump had threatened to punish those who backed the non-binding resolution and it is a long naughty list comprising of 128 countries, including all four of the other permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, China, UK, France).

There were 35 countries who abstained, most notably Canada and Mexico, while 21 countries did not turn up for the vote at the emergency special session requested by Arab and Muslim states who condemn Trump's decision to shift the US embassy.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the UN a "house of lies", adding in a statement: "Israel thanks President Trump for his unequivocal position in favour of Jerusalem and thanks those countries that voted alongside Israel, alongside the truth."

Meanwhile, US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said: "The United States will remember this day, on which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation," she said.

"America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that."

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote "a victory for Palestine".